Well before the gates opened hundreds of cars and buses filled the 2-mile stretch of road from I-66 to Great Meadow. They were bringing more than 50,000 spectators to see the 79th running of the Virginia Gold Cup.

It was to be a long day for all the Gold Cup riders and revelers, and an even longer day for the 52 volunteers from the Fauquier and Prince William County fire and rescue companies already well positioned on the grounds.

Responsibility for organizing and directing this critical emergency response team belonged to Chief Blakeney Gallagher of The Plains Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company 4, the chief of the Fauquier County fire and rescue unit nearest to Great Meadow. As "first due chief", Gallagher must ensure compliance with all State codes and County zoning regulations related to such events. The Virginia Gold Cup, however, is special, legally designated a "Class A" event because it draws a crowd of more than 25,000.

On April 1st, Chief Gallagher sent a memorandum to the chiefs of nine Fauquier County volunteer fire and rescue companies and to Chief Richard Bird of Prince William County Company 4 in Gainesville, requesting assistance and specifying the precise nature of support needed from each and every unit.

Each of the chiefs then solicited volunteers, both to meet the Great Meadow and to provide regular coverage in their home operational areas.

Gallagher's plan called for all the companies to arrive at Great Meadow by 8:00 a.m. and to be in position by 9:00, a full hour before the gates opened to the public. He deployed 4 ambulances around the racecourse whose primary duty was to respond to injured riders. Tommy Shamblin of The Plains VFC 4 took a postion high in the Stewards' Stand, to dispatch those crews.

With Shamblin and his team covering the racecourse, Chief Gallagher would respond to incidents among the 50,000 spectators, dispatching teams from his position in the main command center.

ATV 'Gators' stood by to transport the ill or injured to the on-site medical support tent. There Dr. Nasser Abu Sitta, the Fauquier County Operational Medical Director, or Dr. Bill Barker, assistant director, could either treat and release patients, or send them to Fauquier Hospital.

The volunteers at Great Meadow were a microcosm of the Fauquier County volunteer fire and rescue community.

Many were smoke-in-their-blood veterans after decades of service. Chief Bird of the Gainesville DVFD is a 47-year veteran. C.Q. Ritchie spent 32 years at the New Baltimore VFC, including service as its chief. He now rides with Company 4 in The Plains. Bill Grogan from Company 2 in Remington is a fully certified paramedic, one of only a handful of volunteers who have taken on the two full years of formal training to reach this level of qualification.

Tom Marable has been a member of Marshall Company 3 for ten years, but on Friday nights he still rides with the company where he first volunteered 22 years ago in Kensington, Maryland. Tom also serves as President of the Fauquier County Fire and Rescue Association.

Many young people from the companies' junior service programs also gave their time and talent on race day. Sylvia Payne was there. Still in her teens, she is a junior member of Warrenton Volunteer Rescue Company 6. Scott Jenkins, a student in the fire and rescue program offered in both Fauquier and Liberty High Schools worked at the command tent. A member of the FHS Green Team, Scott is a senior at Fauquier High School, bound for Longwood College in the fall to study forensic medicine.

While these young volunteers are not yet certified to participate in emergency response activities, they already perform important logistic and administrative chores. And, as all the veterans know, these young people are the future, the very core of the next generation of volunteer fire and rescue in Fauquier County.

As post time neared for the first race, the skies held a veil of clouds and a cool breeze gently ruffled the longer grass in the infield. It was a perfect day for racing and tailgating, and even better for the emergency volunteers, for a hot sun and no breeze almost always mean more medical emergencies.

Chief Gallagher's plans were tested early. "Rider down!" sounded halfway through the Foxhunter Chase Championship, an amateur event preceding the first official race. A horse went down at a mid-course jump. Its rider lay motionless as Tommy Shamblin peered through his binoculars from the Stewards' Stand, radio in hand, poised to dispatch the nearest ambulance. After several seconds, which seemed much longer to those in the crowd, the rider slowly rose and began walking without assistance. No dispatch needed.

Post time for the Intelidyne Maiden Hurdle, the first official race, was 1:30. As the race started, the Warrenton Joint Communications Center radioed Chief Gallagher about a serious accident on Route 55 at Whiting Road in The Plains, just a few miles from Great Meadow.

Gallagher dispatched Assistant Chief Tony Corbin in the Company 4 Chevy Suburban command buggy along with an Advanced Life Support crew he'd earlier assigned to cover off-grounds emergencies. They quickly joined other responders from Marshall Volunteer Fire Company 3 and Marshall Volunteer Rescue Company 9 at the accident scene, stabilizing a seriously injured motorcyclist and calling for helicopter medical evacuation. By 2:25 the deployed units were back in position at Great Meadow.

There, it was business as usual: slips and falls among the spectators, a turned ankle here, a few scratches and bruises there. Some required supervised rest and rehydration after a julip or so too many.

The big race of the day, however, the $50,000 four-mile Virginia Gold Cup Timber Stakes, brought everyone to full attention.

As Joe at Six, the eventual winner chased Fast Steppin' Man toward the final jump on the back stretch the lead horse broke sharply to the right, failed to negotiate the jump, and took a serious fall.

Steppin Man's rider, Mark Griffith, lay motionless as medics from Cedar Run VFC 12, rushed to the scene. Erick Kling, a career staff member from The Plains VFC 4, raced to the scene. Mark Griffith was loaded into an ambulance and transported to Fauquier Hospital where he was treated for his injuries and released.