Since he was a young boy, Howard Berkof of the Town of Chevy Chase has been fascinated by fire trucks and Legos.
He has designed and built his own versions of the Chevy Chase Fire Station 707 and its vehicles as well as Bethesda Fire Station 6 on Wisconsin Avenue. He’s made plastic block replicas of Cabin John and Sandy Spring boats and other equipment and is about to embark on his newest project.
Montgomery County Police District 3 officers have asked Berkoff, 47, to make a model of the nearby fire station.
Berkof, a mechanical engineer who is a civilian employee with the U.S. Navy, studies the county’s newest emergency vehicles, designs them according to his specs, orders special Lego bricks and then snaps them together. All his fire trucks are six bricks wide.
He is a purest, only using Legos in his work. He has seen others use shoelaces to replicate fire hoses and lots of stickers, but he will not.
“My style is to stick with Legos. I stick to pure Legos,” said Berkof.
Pictured above: County Fire Chief Corey Smedley checks out Berkof’s Lego display
Playing with Legos, said Berkof, enables him to deal with life and work stresses, spend quality time with his 12-year-old daughter and live out his firefighting dreams, which ended when he learned he would have had to gain emergency medical knowledge.
“It’s a way for the family to be together and do something that is useful and productive, and not watching television or being on screens,” he said.
Berkof estimated that he spent thousands of dollars and hours on his Lego creations, noting, “I honestly have no idea, maybe tens of thousands of dollars.”
About five years ago, he moved into the Mihran Mesrobian House on Connecticut Avenue, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. No word yet on if he plans to make a Lego replica of it.
Thanks Town of Chevy Chase Resident Howard Berkof for about 3 months worth of work design, purchase & construction on Lego replica @mcfrs Chevy Chase Fire Station 707 on display during Open House. @MCFRSFireChief Corey Smedley looks forward to construction of more fire stations pic.twitter.com/YGreJNMZWb
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) October 13, 2025
