On a hot July afternoon, Beth Mauch sits on the front porch of her home on Seneca Ridge Drive in Sterling. She tearfully smiles at what she sees across the street. Volunteers are hard at work planting trees, flowers, and shrubs for the new FF Trevor Brown Memorial Park. The space honors the life of fallen Loudoun County volunteer firefighter Trevor Brown.
“It’s always been lovely on this porch, chatting with neighbors and enjoying the breeze. But for a long time, we just stopped sitting out front at all, because the view over there was so sad and terrible,” says Mauch.
Mauch’s house directly faces 347 Silver Ridge Dr., the site of a massive February 16, 2024, home explosion. It was triggered by a leaky 500-gallon underground propane tank meant to heat the property’s in-ground pool. The disaster claimed the life of Brown, who was on duty and died at the scene, and injured 13 others.
For more than a year, the corner lot, once occupied by a tidy brick home and meticulously landscaped yard, remained a catastrophic disaster site. It was filled with charred rubble surrounded by chain-link fencing. “Loud frogs took home in the space where the pool had been, and some foxes made a den there. It basically became an abandoned lot,” says Mauch.
Serenity Replaces Chaos
Thanks to community volunteers, considerable fundraising, local support, and donations, beauty and serenity have replaced the destruction and chaos.
Prominent FF Trevor Brown Memorial Park features include a large boulder with a bronze plaque commemorating Brown’s life and service. It has mulched walking paths and multiple benches to sit and reflect. Professional landscaping includes oak, maple, dogwood, beech, cypress, and redbud trees. There are also hydrangea, rhododendron, rose, spirea, lilac, sedum, aster, and Black-Eyed Susan plantings, among others.
A Celebration of Travor Brown’s Life
The public is invited to attend FF Trevor Brown Memorial Park’s official grand opening. It’s scheduled to take place rain or shine at 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 26, which is Trevor Brown’s birthday. The event will last approximately one hour.
Park committee member Andrea Khoury says guests and speakers in attendance will include friends and members of Brown’s family. It will also include first responders from all local jurisdictions (with strong representation from Loudoun County Fire and Rescue, Sterling Volunteer Fire Department, and Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office). Members of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors and other public officials are also invited.
“The program will open with a color guard and the national anthem, followed by a formal ribbon cutting,” says Khoury. “Fire trucks will raise flags high overhead from their ladders to mark the occasion. And we will have music throughout the morning to honor Trevor’s life and the first responders who were with him that night. This park was built by and for the community. We hope to see families, supporters, and neighbors from across the region join us in celebration as we honor Trevor’s legacy as a firefighter, father, husband, son, and friend, while also celebrating the incredible community effort that brought this park to life.”
Brown’s memorial boulder was donated by park committee member Andrea Khoury and her husband, Michael Louis. It was transported from her property in Brambleton by Julian Miranda of Potomac Towing.
Collaborative Process
Steven Honard, president of the Seneca Ridge Homeowners Association, lives near the site of the explosion. His wife, Cheryl Honard, grew up in a family of first responders. “Cheryl was really torn up about the explosion, knowing Trevor would not be coming home to his family,” he explains. “We had just retired and had some funds in our retirement account. And we just felt strongly that we wanted to do something to make sure another house would never be built on that site. We wanted to set aside green space for the community while honoring Trevor and helping his family and the community heal.”
Honard and his wife approached Kelley Woods, owner of the home that had exploded. Even before the accident, Woods had been planning to move and was preparing the home for sale. “I asked her if I made a fair offer for the property, would she consider selling it to me without putting it on the market, in order to avoid a bidding war, and she said yes,” says Honard. “We both just felt this was the right thing to do.”
Developing the park was a collaborative and gradual process. Committee member Kris Hjort, who lives in Sterling and is owner of K&H Landscape and Grounds Maintenance, took the lead in designing the park. He donated his company’s expertise, resources, and services while working with the committee to raise funds for materials and ongoing maintenance. “The goal is for the space to remain a park — a place for Trevor’s wife and family and anyone else who wants to go there to sit, reflect, and enjoy nature,” says Hjort.
Community Support
Owning the 15,000 square-foot property comes with expenses, like taxes and water bills. So Honard is meeting with lawyers to place the lot in a conservation easement trust, perhaps eventually donating ownership to the HOA to manage. Honard says he currently relies on two funding streams. First, the Real Husbands of Loudoun County Foundation, a 501(c)(3) foundation, is raising funds for ongoing upkeep and maintenance. Second, donations to Honard’s FundMe account help recoup some of the legal and administrative costs for the property.
Honard thanks the entire community and local businesses for their volunteer and financial support thus far. He acknowledges there are too many to list, but most notably members of the RHOLC Foundation and K&H Landscape and Grounds Maintenance.
Bryon Andrews of Scout Troop 1128 provided the bronze plaque for Brown’s boulder memorial as part of his Eagle Scout project. And 28 scouts from his troop donated more than 100 hours in volunteer labor for the park. Dominion High School raised money to obtain and install a pet waste station and trash receptacle. “From the smallest contribution to the largest, community support has been tremendous and much appreciated,” says Honard.
A New View
The park is especially meaningful to Mauch, who was home on the night of the explosion and is still dealing with the trauma of the experience. “It’s unfathomable the damage that occurred. Those who live nearby, we were all emotionally gutted and are still reeling from all of this,” she says. “Once you witness something like this, you have nightmares. I literally shook for days afterwards. But now to have this amazing park is so calming for our neighborhood. And the fact that Trevor’s family can come here to find some peace while remembering him is just lovely.”
Rendering of the park courtesy K&H Landscape and Grounds Maintenance
