Drewry Volunteer Fire Department

Drewry VFD was organized in 1963 as an auxiliary of Warrenton Rural VFD. Around 1980, the auxiliary system was dissolved.

The department had 19 charter members: C.B. Curtis, Ellis Fleming, Felix Ranes, Roger Fleming, Morris Fleming, Jr., Wilson Fleming, William Ellington, Charles Ellington, Bernard Holtzman, A.E. Liles, Paul Lancaster, Luther Kimball, Ed White, James Watkins, Vernon Whitmore, Marshall Fleming, Leonard Bender, Stanley Norwood and Kenneth Daeke.

The first Drewry firehouse was housed in what was the Drewry school building, which the community purchased from a Mr. Daeke. The fire department and the Drewry Community Club worked together to raise money for firefighting equipment and to make repairs to the building, which housed both the department and the club.
The fire department began with two trucks and, in 1965, added a Dodge weapons carrier that was revamped for use as a brush truck. New apparatus and equipment have been added since then.

On July 1, 1984, the firehouse burned. In October of that year, Drewry VFD moved into its present building, which was constructed at the same location on Manson Drewry Rd.

In 2008, a substation on Drewry-Virginia Line Road was added to better protect the citizens of the community.

The department serves Warren and Vance counties, Interstate 85 and the Kerr Lake area with firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics.

Since 1963, Drewry VFD has had six chiefs: C.B. Curtis, Jr., James Watkins, A.P. Holtzmann, Jr., Randy Curtis, Jerry Holtzman and its current chief, Charles Holtzman.

The department’s business meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month at 8 p.m. at the main station on Manson Road.

An auxiliary composed of both men and women was reactivated in recent years and supports the fire department with fund-raising activities which include fish and fried chicken plate sales on Memorial Day weekend, stews in November and February, and pork barbecue and fried chicken plate sales in October.