News & Events

EUS Summer Training - local community visits in Virginia Beach - Fire Station No. 13

Description: As part of the EUS Virginia Beach training - we had the opportunity to be assigned to visit facilities in the community. This visit was to Fire Station No. 13. Five members of the fire department were at the fire house during the visit. Zoey and I joined them as they were sitting in their lounge area and spent an hour visiting with them and Zoey rotating laying at the feet of each fireman for lots of pets. Conversation was extremely interesting asking them questions about their fire house and what makes it unique. I learned the unique differences and challenges they have in their area vs more densely populated areas…from how they utilize water from tankers vs fire hydrant (also cleaning the interior of the tankers), vehicle accidents (due to the very deep ditches), their daily schedule while on shift and succession planning (two long time members will be retiring and/or training for new careers). I had the opportunity to discuss HOPE and they were very supportive of the work and the professional process HOPE follows for deployments.