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Trevor Brown was a rock. Whether it was answering a call for the Sterling Volunteer Fire Company, going on a hike or, closest to his heart, caring for his wife and three kids, the brawny, 6-foot-tall Brown was solid – always reliable, always steady.
This Saturday, Brown’s birthday, in the modest, tree-lined Sterling neighborhood mistakable for thousands of others across America, the Loudoun community will unveil a 4.5-ton rock – a boulder, more precisely – at the spot Brown died in a spiraling blaze on Feb. 16, 2024.
On the boulder rests a plaque: “It doesn’t matter what bad events occur, there will always be good,” it reads. “I get stronger with each hardship I face. I learn and grow from all events, good ones and bad ones.”
Trevor Brown spoke those words to his wife, Laura, who will be in attendance Saturday for the dedication of FF Trevor Brown Memorial Park at 347 Silver Ridge Drive in the Seneca Ridge neighborhood, the site of the lives-changing home explosion caused by a leaking propane tank.
The brooding boulder is the centerpiece of the park, watched over by a towering caretaker: a three-stories-high oak tree that survived the fateful night. The property in recent weeks has been stocked with trees and flowers – junipers, hydrangeas, red maples, crape myrtles, among others – benches and fresh stone walkways. It’s a welcoming scene.
The rock is the perfect symbol, the perfect representation of who Trevor Brown was, said Jesse Michaud, Brown’s mentor with the Sterling Volunteer Fire Company.
“He was a big guy – a strong man, mentally and physically,” Michaud said in an interview with InsideNoVa. “If he said he was going to do something, he was going to do it. He was a pillar of the station.”
Community effort
FF Trevor Brown Memorial Park is a story of the best of Loudoun County – one of neighbors, of friends and of strangers, who while thinking to themselves, “Someone has to do something” to honor Brown’s sacrifice, realized they were, in fact, the “someone.”
Eight months after the fire, Steve Honard and his wife, Cheryl, purchased the ravaged corner plot on Silver Ridge Drive. Residents of Seneca Ridge since 1985 – down the road from the Browns’ former residence – the Honards were determined to transform the property into a solemn place of remembrance rather than a searing reminder of tragedy.
“I thought a plane crashed. I mean, we’re so close to Dulles,” Honard, president of the Seneca Ridge homeowners association, said in recalling the night of Feb. 16. “Our whole house shook.”
Cheryl Honard’s father and stepfather were firefighters, something that sparked the desire to buy the property and create some kind of tribute.
“She was just thinking, when she was young, she could never imagine them not coming home,” Steve Honard said. “It just tore her up.”
The Honards wouldn’t take on the transformation efforts alone – and there were plenty of hands eager to assist.
Kris Hjort, president of Sterling-based K&H Landscaping, didn’t blink when the prospect of creating the park came to his attention in late 2024. Community and philanthropy are ingrained in Hjort’s philosophy.
“If there’s something I can do, I do it,” Hjort said. “I told Steve once we got the go-ahead, we’re not going to be moving slowly.”
Over the past year, a committee hellbent on making the park a reality has hosted fundraisers – a golf outing, casino night, guest bartending events – to raise tens of thousands of dollars toward the project, their efforts culminating with Saturday’s ceremony, which will feature remarks from committee members, public safety leaders and county officials.
Hjort, Honard and Michaud are among members of the committee along with leaders of The Real Husbands of Loudoun County, the nonprofit through which the funds are being managed.
“We automatically said yes and just wanted to help out and honor Trevor Brown, without hesitation,” said Suhile Adam Alami, founder the Real Husbands of Loudoun County Foundation, which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for first responders. “We just try to help the community any way we can – small causes or big causes.”
‘A place of healing’
On Monday – less than two months after physical work began at the site – landscapers and crews were putting the finishing touches on the park.
Wearing a “T611” ballcap – Brown was serving on Tower 611 in response to the fire – Steve Honard offered an anecdote encapsulating the park’s mission. He said the Browns’ neighbor across from Silver Ridge was at her door as the explosion ripped the home apart. She watched as flames and debris flailed into the night, with reports of the blast being felt miles away.
For months, Honard said, the neighbor stared at the unsightly chain-linked property, a persistent, painful reminder of the devastation.
Then, earlier this month, the neighbor walked over to get a front-row view of the nascent park. It was the first time since the fire – the first time in some 16 months – she crossed the street on which she lives.
That’s what the park is all about, Honard said. “For Seneca Ridge, we wanted to make this a place of healing for the community.”
