The Virginia Beach Fire Department is the agency that provides fire protection and non-transport Basic Life Support & Advanced Life Support emergency medical service for Virginia Beach, Virginia

Virginia Beach, Virginia

Virginia Beach is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay...

, as well as a section of North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

. The VBFD protects an area of 310 square miles (802.9 km²), 258.7 square miles (670 km²) land, 51.3 square miles (132.9 km²) water and a population of over 437,000 with 435 paid (of those approximately 100 are Advanced Life Support providers) firefighters, from 19 firehouses strategically located around the city. In 2009, the department responded to over 28,000 calls for service.

Fire apparatus and Firehouses

1 - First Landing (Engine 1, Ladder 1, Fireboat 1)
2 - Davis Corner (Engine 2, Ladder 2, Brush 2, Battalion 2)
3 - London Bridge (Engine 3, Squad 3, Hazmat 1, Hazmat 2)
4 - Chesapeake Beach (Engine 4)
5 - Princess Anne (Engine 5, Tanker 5, Brush 5, Mobile Command Unti)
6 - Creeds (Engine 6, Brush 6)
7 - Thalia (Engine 7, Retired Engine 7 1951 Chevy Pumper)
8 - Oceana (Engine 8, Ladder 8)
9 - Kempsville (Engine 9, Ladder 9, Brush 9)
10 - Woodstock (Engine 10, Squad 10, TECH 1, TECH 2)
11 - Beach Borough (Engine 11, Engine 14, Ladder 11, Battalion 1)
12 - Seatack (Engine 12, Brush 12, Decon Unit)
13 - Blackwater (Engine 13, Brush 13)
16 - Plaza (Engine 16, Ladder 16, Brush 16)
17 - Sandbridge (Engine 17, Brush 17)
18 - Green Run (Engine 18, Battalion 3)
19 - Stumpy Lake (Engine 19)
20 - Little Neck (Engine 20)
21 - General Booth (Engine 21, Ladder 21, Battalion 4)

Engine companies

VBFD maintains 20 Engine companies(E1, E2, E3, E4, E5, E6, E7, E8, E9, E10, E11, E12, E13, E14, E16, E17, E18, E19, E20, E21). Two brands of engines are used: American Lafrance Eagles and Pierce Quantums. Some are engines, some are 50' telesquirts.

Ladder companies

The department has three tower ladders: L2 and L8, both rear mounts, and L16, a mid-mount 2005 American Lafrance Eagle. Ladders 1, 9, 11 and 21 are Pierce Dash 105' Aerials. The City replaced its tractor drawn aerial ladder with a new Pierce Quantum 110 ft tractor-drawn unit in late summer of 2008. This unit is housed at Station 11 serving the high-rise resort area of the city.

Squad companies

The Department also has two specialized response squads: Squad 3 Hazmat and Squad 10 Technical Rescue. Squad 3 responds to all Hazmat calls in the city with a specially equipped Walkaround Heavy Rescue mounted on a 2003 American Lafrance Eagle Chassis.

The Technical Rescue Squad responds with Squad 10, a walk-around heavy rescue mounted on a 2009 Pierce Quantum Heavy Rescue, a Freightliner M2 Box truck specially equipped, as well as a 28 ft Wells Cargo Trailer. The Technical Rescue Rescue Team is housed at Station 10 in the Kempsville section of the city, and responds to technical incidents in the city: high/low angle rope rescue, trench rescue, as well as providing mutual assistance to neighboring cities.
Both Squad 3 and Squad 10 respond to assist the Ladder Companies on auto crashes involving pins/entrapments. Each Squad responds to any working incident in their respective response area.

Other units

• Brush Trucks - Three 2006 Ford F350 Brush Trucks are used for natural cover fires: Brush 5, Brush 6 and Brush 13 are the newest brush units to the fleet. The remaining brush units are a mix of Chevys and Fords with various years and models.

• Tankers - Tanker 5 and Tanker 6 provide added protection to the south end of the city where there are no fire hydrants.

• Chief Vehicles - The four Battalion Chiefs drive 2008 Chevrolet Suburbans.

• Monster 1 - A monster truck parade engine used for public relations events.

Special Operations Teams

• Marine Operations Team

• Technical Rescue Team

• Hazardous Materials Team

FEMA US&R team

The Virginia Beach Fire Department is home to Virginia Task Force 2, a Federal Urban Search and Rescue Resource.

Deployments

• Petersburg, Virginia - 1993
• Hurricane Opal - 1995
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - 1995
• Hurricane Fran - 1996
• Summer Olympics - 1996
• Hurricane Georges - 1998
• The Pentagon - 2001
• Winter Olympics - 2002
• Hurricane Frances - 2004
• Hurricane Ivan - 2004
• Hurricane Rita - 2005
• Hurricane Katrina 1 - 2005
• Hurricane Katrina 2 - 2005
• Hurricane Ernesto - 2006
• Hurricane Gustav - 2008
• Hurricane Ike - 2008
• Tropical Storm Omar - 2008
• Haiti Earthquake-2010

Retired Units

The City has a number of retired units locations are as follows

• 1980's E-One Pumper Series sold to various departments mostly in western rural Virginia still fully operating in stock condition as VBFD had them; one of these units operates as "first due" at the paper mill in Franklin, VA
• Retired Unit "Tanker 5" (T-5) a Seagrave apparatus was sold and repainted to fit the color scheme of the Keeling, VA Volunteer Fire Department. This unit originally served as Tanker 5, moved to Tanker 3, then Tanker 7, and finally Tanker 20.
• 1951 Chevy Pumper which served as the old engine for "Thalia Civic League Volunteer Fire Department" before the VBFD merger/consolidation in 1963 was recently repurchased and restored to its original condition by members of Station 7. It is currently housed at Station 7 in the Thalia Section of the city used for show at the station as well as driven in parades
• Ladder 8 a 1987 Grumman 102' Aerial Platform housed at Station 8 which served the Great Neck Section of Virginia Beach was sold to a sign company in the area in Summer of 2007 and is used for its 102' Aerial Platform. It still sports the VBFD color scheme though all city markings and lights have been covered or removed.
• 4 of the 1988 E-One Pumpers are still used at the VBFD Training Facility on Birdneck Rd. and are kept at the City Garage on Seaboard Rd. 2 of these units were temporarily placed into service during a Third Alarm fire at Bills Flea Market in January 2009 which also required mutual aid from the neighboring cities of Chesapeake Fire Department and Norfolk Fire Rescue.
• Some of the older Pierce units from the 2000 model year that have been retired ar stored at the city garage and used as substitute engines for when front line apparatus is being used in training or going through maintenance.

Reassigned units

• The 2003 American LaFrance unit originally assigned as "Squad 10" was replaced with a Pierce Quantum Heavy Rescue that became the new "Squad 10". The American LaFrance unit became the second unit for the VBFD Technical Rescue Team; it remains in full service and fully equipped, responding on daily calls as "TECH 2" along with the Technical Rescue Team, and when necessary, the USAR Task Force 2 Team. This unit is currently housed at Station 10 in the Kempsville Section of the city.
• 2003 American LaFrance unit with a 50' Telesquirt originally assigned as Engine 18 was reassigned in 2006 as Engine 17 in an effort to provide the area of Sandbridge rural with an aerial device better equipped than the 1988 pumper they were currently using at Station 17. A new unit came in as Engine 18, a 2005 American LaFrance Eagle Pumper, which was nearly identical to the old Engine 18, without the aerial device.
• The 2003 American LaFrance Eagle unit with an aerial device that ran as engine 10, suffered from "catastrophic engine failure" in early 2010 after a series of several mechanical issues. The Unit was replaced with a 2010 Pierce Qunatum engine without an aerial device in August of 2010 which will run as Engine 10 (E-10). The old unit was salvaged for usable parts on other American LaFrance rigs in the department and was scrapped.

Links

• The Virginia Beach Fire Department
• The Unofficial Virginia Beach Fire Department Website
• Virginia Task Force 2

http://www.facebook.com/VirginiaBeachFD