CALLAWAY, Va. (WDBJ) — James Webb helped start the Callaway Volunteer Fire Department in 1966, when all the department had was a charter and a 1947 Ford truck.
Webb said the only volunteer fire departments in Franklin County at the time were in Glade Hill and Rocky Mount, “so we got one together.”
A lifetime of service
Webb spent 42 years as chief of the Callaway department. Jacqueline Feazell, a clerk at Callaway Hardware Plus, said, “It’s weird calling him James, because I’ve known him as Chief the entire time I’ve been around here.”
Webb decided this year to step back as chief. He said, “I didn’t want to go out with them, and maybe if something happened to me, where they have to look after me instead.”…