Roanoke City says Goodbye to Another One of Its Own

1952-2009

It is with great sadness that the Roanoke Fire-EMS Dept. announces the passing of Retired BC Billy Obenchain on Wednesday December 23, 2009. BC Obenchain has been battling a long fight against cancer for the past nine years. After 33 years of service in the department, his final assignement was as the Northside Battalion Chief on C-shift, housed in the #2 firehouse in Northeast Roanoke, where he retired in 2006. Funeral arrangements are as follows: Viewing will be held at Vinton Oakeys on December 27 from 1-4 & 6-9. Funeral service will be December 28 at Vinton Baptist Church at 1100 with the graveside service being held at Mountainview Cemetary. If there are any personnel that will not be attending the funeral & can work for anyone that would like to attend the services please contact Capt. Doug Rorrer via e-mail with a number you can be reached at. (below photo courtesy of Mike Overacker & RoanokeFirefighters.com)

House Saved in SE

The middle day for the crew of Engine 6 proved to be an eventful day. The Medic unit stayed busy throughout the day with the Engine catching a few runs as well. All, yes i said ALL of the downtime was spent preparing for upcoming promotional tests. I want to wish the best of luck to all the candidates but especially to three of our very own on A-Shift; Lt. Todd McFall who will be testing for 1st Lieutenant on Wednesday December 9, & FF David Wray & FF/Medic Adam Troutt, both of which will be testing for Lieutenant today. Good luck guys, you all have worked & studied very hard for this. Just as the studying was winding down around 2230 crews from E6,E1,E11,L1,M6,BC1,& RS1 were dispatched to the area of 5th St. & Bullitt AV SE for a fire in a house. Just after pulling out of the house, heavy smoke could be seen & BC1 immediately requested the dispatch of L7 b/c L1's crew was in HTR6 (no aerial ladder & only a 6ft ground ladder on this piece of apparatus) b/c L1 was out-of-service. BC1 arrived & reported heavy smoke pushing from the eaves of the house & marked it a working fire. Interior lines were stretched & only a small access was found to the attic. It was said that the access to the attic was so small that even "Slim" wouldn't be able to get in haha. Great job to all the crews that responded & provided a quick knock down that isolated the fire to the large attc.

The Search For A New Name

It's been a fairly steady Friday in Southeast. To start off with, the usual daily checks were done & then the floors were stripped in waxed. Through out the day both units ran enough calls to keep us busy with the Engine running two during the day & the Medic unit running a total of four. Just before midnight both units were sent on a pedestrian that had been ran over by a car in the 700 blk of Mountain AV SE. Upon arrival a male subject was found to have severe lacerations from the incident & was transported to RMH. Hopefully the rest of the night will have peace in store.
Just a reminder to all members of the Roanoke Bravest Football Club, a team meeting will be held on November 5, 2009 at the Union Hall at 1830. The meeting will include a finalization of the list of all individuals that are commited to playing in the 2010 season, a decision on team colors will be made & another team name will have to be decided. A new rule in the league this year prohibits the duplicate use of team names so a new team name will be decided that evening. If you are unable to make the meeting, please make every attempt to contact Capt. Stone or Chris Price. Be safe out there!

Rest Easy Brother

Capt. Chris Brown

1965-2009

It is with great sadness that the Roanoke Fire-EMS Dept. announces the death of Capt. Chris Brown. Capt. Brown was a 15 year veteran of the department with his most recent assignment being the Capt. of the Roanoke Fire-EMS Station #1. He will be greatly missed but not forgotten. Capt. Browns 1st. Lt. JJ Price recalled that "...he was a fair man, always gave someone a clean slate no matter what he had heard about someone...". Our hearts & prayers go out to both his family & his fellow brothers & sisters of the Fire Department. Visitation will be held on Sunday October 25, 2009 at Oakey's East Chapel in Bonsack from 2pm to 6pm. Funeral service will be held Monday October 26, 2009 at the 1st Baptist Church at 1pmw/ a graveside service held at the Evergreen Burial Park.

FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL

JUST AS A REMINDER, THE INFORMATIONAL MEETING FOR THE 2010 NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY FOOTBALL LEAGUE SEASON WILL BE ON TUESDAY OCTOBER 20, 2009 AT 1830. THIS MEETING IS FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN JOINING "THE BRAVEST" & IT WILL BE HELD AT THE TRAINING CENTER. CAPT. STONE HAS RECEIVED MULTIPLE PHONE CALLS OVER THE PAST FEW DAYS FROM TEAMS FROM CHARLSTON, SC, WASHINGTON D.C., & CLEVELAND ALL HOPING TO GET A SHOT AT US THIS YEAR. THIS IS A GREAT THING FOLKS, LET'S NOT LET THIS DISSOLVE!!

Busy Last Day

Today, started off to a busy start. It all began with a pub-ed event at Fallon Park Elementary School. The crew of E6 & M6 were joined by Capt. Bedwell, FF James Rivers of the Melrose Misfits, FF Colin Humphries of The Rock, FF Rachel "Stormy" Winters of The Green House, & our very own PIO Tiffany Bradbury. The Fire Safety House was taken to the elementary school so that five classes were able to go through it with the guidance of our firefighters, instructing them on some fire safety tips they can take home with them.

FF Zimmerman instructing students on fireplace

safety.

The "Good Son" in the control center

Lt. Mcfall going over how the students should get as low to the floor as possible if the room has alot of smoke in it.

FF Humphries instructing students on things "not to do" in the kitchen.

"Would you like fries with that"?

Later in the day the medic unit was sent w/ E1, E8, L1, RS1, & M101 to North bound 220 for an MVC w/ possible entrapment & possible four calls involved. M1 was later dispatched for the possibility of multiple patients. Upon arrival of E8, it was discovered that this was a minor MVC w/o serious injury. Later in the evening it seemed that one of the men needed a hair cut. Slim had requested that Adam to the cuttin' but we had a guest barber in the house that took his part in the cutting. Otherwise it was a fairly quiet night w/ only two calls after midnight. We'll see yawl next cycle!!

Middle Day for A-Shift

Out here in the East was a pretty busy day. The medic unit totaled out at 11 w/ two after midnight & the hose jockies only ran two; one of which you will see pics of below. At 1956 both units along w/ E11, E1, L1, BC1, & RS1 were dispatched to a residence on Church AV in Southeast for a chimney fire that was extending into the roof. E6 arrived to find a 1 1/2 story residential structure w/ some fire visible from the chimney. The normal chimney bombs weren't enough however to extinguish the fire due to the high buildup of residue in the chimney. L1 then took the electric fan to the basement where it was placed in front of the clean out. A dry-chem extinguisher was then discharged into the chimney & the fan was utilized to blow the agent up through the length of the chimney to extinguish the fire. A water can was used from the roof by M6 personnel to extinguish some hot spots near the top. After a small clean up all crews returned to service.