08/05/10 Severe Weather

Posted on August 5, 2010
After temperatures around 100 degrees on August 5th, Mother Nature decided to cool off the area by means of severe thunderstorms. The afternoon for Company 4 began with a medical responder call for an industrial trauma and became a crescendo that culminated between 1900 hours and 2000 hours with trees on homes and multiple power lines down. One such power line incident resulted in a small brush fire. Despite the size of the fire, several nearby residents became quite concerned but remained patient while personnel waited for the utilities to be isolated for the safety of all concerned parties.

During the storm, the County was very busy from one end to the other and most companies had multiple units out on runs. Despite the chaos from the call load and occassional radio issues, Dinwiddie Communications did a good job of keeping everything relativley organized. Great job in a time that would likely make somebody want to pull their hair out.

07/31/10 Route 460 MVA

Posted on July 31, 2010

Shortly before noon on July 31st, Engine 4 responded to eastbound Route 460 for a three vehicle collision with injuries. Due to some confusion in the dispatch information Engine 4 was initially dispatched to assist Squad 2, but the incident was actually in Company 4's first due area. Two of the three vehicles can be seen in these images in precarious positions. The third had only very minor damage. Using equipment from Squad 2, Engine 4's crew stabilized the vehicles while Squad 2's crew assisted Medic 42 with patient care. After closing all lanes of eastbound 460 for a short period, the incident was under control and one patient was sent to the hospital for evaluation.

07/26/10 Truck Fire

Posted on July 26, 2010

At around 0430 hours on 07/26/10, Company 4 was dispatched for a logging truck on fire at the East Coast gas station. Early reports were that the truck was at the fuel pump, but those, thankfully, were false. The truck was parked in an overnight parking area and the driver was not inside the vehicle at the time of the fire. Engine 4 was quickly on scene and had a line extended immediately. Water was first placed on the neighboring truck which was a few feet away. The seat of the fire was then extinguished and there was no damage to the exposures. Due to the reported location, Companies 1 and 2 were also dispatched but were able to return to service due to the fast knock down of the fire. There were no injuries and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

07/19/10 Motel Fire In McKenney

Posted on July 19, 2010

At 0155 hours on July 19th, 2010, Company 4 was dispatched to a motel fire on the southern end of the County. Upon arrival of the first and second due companies, the fire was reported to fully involve three units of the motel with extension rapidly progressing into four more. Due to the age of the structure, there were no fire breaks between segments of the complex. The first arriving unit from Company 4 was Truck 4. The aerial master stream was immediately deployed by part of the crew while the remainder of the crew grabbed a hand line from an engine company and made entry to pull ceilings and stop the progression. Tanker 4 arrived shortly after, using most of its crew for suppression and to shuttle water to the scene after the nearby town of McKenney suffered a mechanical issue with its water system.

On scene were Engine 1, Tanker 1, Tanker 2, Engine 3, Engine 34, Tanker 3, Truck 4, Tanker 4, Medic 12, along with numerous support units. Special thanks go to Alberta VFD from Brunswick County who cam e via mutual aid. These guys came off the rig, went to work right away, and put forth as much effort as anyone else on location.

No injuries were reported and, at this time, the fire is under investigation to determine if illicit activities contributed to the blaze.

07/28/10 Correction: In the original posting of this article, Old Hickory (Company 5) was mistakenly left out of the list of responding departments. Had the writer (me) not been a complete moron, this would have been noticed earlier. Sincere apologies for the oversight.

07/17/10 Vehicle Fire

Posted on July 18, 2010

At approximately 0215 hours on 07/17/10, Company 4 was dispatched to a vehicle fire on Weakley Road. The duty crew was quickly out the door, and upon arrival, Tanker 4's crew found a BMW SUV fully involved. Just under five minutes after arriving on scene (twelve minutes after initial dispatch), the fire was marked under control.

The vehicle was stolen earlier in the night and the driver had already left the scene. The incident is under investigation.

The pictures are still frames taken from Tanker 4's video camera. The video is available on our Video page.

07/17/10 Mutual Aid Fire

Posted on July 18, 2010

After extinguishing a vehicle fire and while still on-scene, the Company 4 Duty Crew overheard radio traffic from neighboring Petersburg. Petersburg was responding to its largest fire in several years- the three-story Brown and Williamson Building renovation. At around 0330 PFD was responding to the former tobacco warehouse that was being converted into up-scale apartments and lofts. A while after returning to quarters, Company 4 was called foe mutual aid to help in the incident.

Namozine joined Petersburg, Chesterfield, Prince George, Colonial Heights, Fort Lee, and Hopewell fire departments in battling the blaze. Company 4 was primarily tasked with keeping the fire from passing through a passageway that led to an adjoining warehouse.

Crews from Company 4 were released at around 1700 hours once the fire was declared contained, yet far from extinguished.

A news clip of the fire can be seen in the video section.