Here is the information:
October 6 Charity Ride for Billy Altman
Motorcycle Ride to benefit the Altman Family Fund.
* 10am
* Va Dept of Fire Programs
* $10 per bike/$5 per passenger
* For information: Donald Hansen 531-7460 or vdfp4wife@aol.com
I cannot thank my brothers and sisters enough for the calls placed to help Jeremy out with his house. We have guys from Roanoke City and Salem who have offered to help. However, more help is needed. Get your crew together and give him or I a call to set up a time to go out and help. More information can be found here.
The 3rd Annual Blue Mass will be held at St. Andrews Catholic Church on Saturday (tomorrow) at 5:30 pm. Please plan on attending. If you can attend or even if you are working, think about making a dessert dish to share with everyone. Contact Kelcey Branch on A Shift today or Willie Wines Jr. (page him) and they will make sure your dish gets to the Church. Everyone is welcome.
UPDATE: The events at Rivers Edge will begin at 2 PM. There will be food and fun for everyone.
There will be a flag football game on Sunday at 2 pm at Rivers Edge. Plan on being there to root on Roanoke City against Roanoke County and Salem. Players need to be there at 2:30pm.
Chief Hoback sent out an email on the City email server about a “Last Lecture”. I recommend you watch the video and read the article. Maybe I will write a “Last Lecture” for you guys in a while. While it is kind of morbid, the thought behind it is certainly entertaining and intuitive. Basically it is about what you would say if it was your last chance to say it.
Thanks also to all of the comments on the Roanoke Fire/EMS Apparatus Staffing post (click here). I appreciate all of the comments as well as how they are written. I will hopefully get a chance to answer some of the questions soon. Continue to keep the comments professional and constructive.
One last thing is the HTR training held yesterday. The pictures are up on VAFireNews.com.
Stay Safe
Thanks to all of you all who called to offer help and prayers while I was in the hospital. For those of you who don’t know, I was hospitalized with viral meningitis for a couple of days. I am recovering at home now. I think the worst is behind me.
Captain Bishop will be returning to work soon. The word I got is that he will be our new Captain at Station 13 C-Shift. I look forward to seeing him back on the job and working with him the same.
Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to Captain Smith’s funeral service. I wanted to add something to the previous post which contained his obituary.
I met Captain Smith, Pete as most of us knew him, when I began working at the Credit Union about 3 years ago. Pete would make the trek down the street to station 8 everyday. Rain, Snow, or Sleet he would come down and sit and talk. More often than not, someone would be waiting with a question for him. At the time he was around 92 years old. Pete would often climb the stairs to the Credit Union just to say hi.
Just like all of the other retirees who stop in to say hi to stations across the City, Pete always had my attention, unless I was otherwise busy. The big difference with Pete is that there is only 1 firefighter left working from before he retired. Therefore, most of what Pete knew of the job and lifestyle has changed many times since he left.
Pete was great with stories. He had plenty of them. The most recent times I saw Pete was when his son brought him by the party we had at Station #3 before it closed, and just a couple weeks ago his son in law brought him by station 8 to the credit union. We talked for several minutes and then they left.
Brothers and Sisters,
Elmer Elijah Smith, or Pete as he was known as, was hired by the Roanoke Fire Department on June 1, 1942 and retired on September 1, 1974. He was the oldest living retiree, having drawn retirement more years than he was on the job.
Pete was a good friend to many of us.
June 13, 1912 September 15, 2007 Elmer E. (Pete) Smith, 95, of Roanoke, died on Saturday, September 15, 2007. He was a retired Captain with the Roanoke City Fire Department. Surviving are his wife of 73 years, Ona Shrader Smith; three children, two daughters and one son, Norma Jean Smith Akers and husband, Robert W. Akers of Roanoke, Wanda L. Smith Darden and husband, Willie L. Darden of Edenton, N.C. and James R. (Jim) Smith and wife, Augustine Dalton Smith of Roanoke; eight grandchildren, Robert E., Ricky W. and Richard L. Akers, Robin Koger, Ronnie Darden, Shari Underwood and Hunter and Ross Smith; seven great-grandchildren and three great-greatgrandchildren. Services will be held at Oakey’s South Chapel on Monday, September 17, 2007, 2 p.m., with the Rev. Gary Fowler officiating. Interment will follow at Sherwood Memorial Park. The family will receive friends on Sunday from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m., at Oakey’s South Chapel.
Published in the Roanoke Times from 9/16/2007 – 9/17/2007.
Sorry I was a little late on this one. However the memorial service is tomorrow.
Phillip A. (Pat) Taylor, 63, of Roanoke County, passed away suddenly on Tuesday, August 7, 2007. Pat was born on August 8, 1943, the son of the late James Henry and Ruby Spradlin Taylor. Pat was predeceased by his first wife, Dianne Helms Taylor. His second marriage to Anna Charlton Taylor ended in divorce.
Pat is survived by his brother, Robert and fianc�e, Corky, of Frederick, Md.; his nephew, Christopher and wife, Laura; and grandniece and grandnephew, Abigail and Carson, of Winchester, Va. The following is as much a memorial recollection as an obituary. Any errors or omissions should be blamed on his brother Pat certainly would have.
Pat grew up on Hollins Road where he attended the Hollins Road Church of the Brethren. The Reverend J. Weldon Meyers was his pastor. His participation in the church sponsored Boy Scout troop, where Bill Craft was his scout leader, was his favorite activity. Thank you Weldon and Bill.
After high school, Pat joined the U.S. Army Reserve serving from 1964 until his honorable discharge in 1970. Thank you, Col. Gore. After completing his initial active duty in 1965, Pat joined the City of Roanoke Fire Department. Firefighting was truly Pat’s professional passion. His competence and dedication resulted in the achievement of the position of Battalion Fire Chief by the time he retired in 1999. Thank you Pete Smith, Gary Clark, Richard Patterson, and Pete Kandas.
Pat’s love of motorcycles started with Japanese cycles, moved to British cycles, and finally culminated in Harley Davidson’s. Late in life Pat seemed to have forgotten that he had ever rode anything but a Hog. Thank you Barry Garst, Jerry Beckner, and Matt Patterson.
Pat’s love of sports cars did not start with Porsches, but quickly went in that direction. He not only loved to drive the cars, but he and close friends rebuilt old Porsches, and traveled many miles to “swap meets” in order to obtain original parts. Thank you Jack Simmons and Keith Rowe.
Before cell phones, if you needed to reach Pat and he was not at home, your best chance of catching up with him was to head to the nearest gun show. His collection pretty much spanned the history of this nation. Thank you, Frank Koehler.
In the early 60′s, Pat enjoyed traveling to a small race track near Danville, Va. In the 90′s this race track reemerged as Virginia International Raceway (VIR). Some of his fondest memories of the past decade were of VIR. Thank you, Larry and Trey Sullivan.
From 1994 on, Pat spent many weeks at the Outer Banks in N.C. Beach cottages provided a wonderful environment for gourmet meals and gorgeous sunsets and a very surreal experience the week of September 11, 2001. Thank you Anna Charlton, Nancy Glasscock, Corky Sullivan, and Charlie.
Always the wine connoisseur, Pat especially enjoyed the wine tasting at Bernard’s Landing and Chateau Morrisette. Thank you Gary Shrader and Lou Bradley.
Pat Taylor’s family will receive friends on Friday, September 7, 2007 from 5 to 8 p.m. at Oakey’s South Chapel on Brambleton Avenue. A memorial service will be conducted on Saturday, September 8, 2007 at 12 Noon at Oakey’s South Chapel, 989-3131.
Published in the Roanoke Times on 9/2/2007.
There will be a Motorcycle Ride to benefit Deputy Chief Billy Altman on October 5th.
Click here for more information.
Once again, the firefighters at Station 1 have outdone themselves. They have created a tv stand out of an old fire alarm pull box pedestal. The stand was repainted and refurbished to hold the tv in the kitchen of the new Fire Station 1.
Great job on the tv stand. Thanks to Lt. Baron Gibson for the pictures. 
Information below. Richard Lipes is looking into this and is hoping to set up a scrimmage soon.
Bragging Rights Flag Football Tournament
www.eteamz.com/iaff2000flagfootball
Funds raised will go to help our wounded US Troops that are in rehab for their injuries @ Walter Reed Military Hospital
Dates: Nov. 17th and 18th, 2007
8 vs 8 (3 linemen w/ the center eligible)
Guaranteed a min. of 3 games (win Sunday in the playoffs and play more)
$250 entry fee
13 teams entered last year with FDNY taking home the Championship Trophy. They will return in 2007 to defend their Championship as well as Camden City, NJ Firefighters and Alexandria Va., Firefighters.
Correction: He was in Charlottesville for a wedding.
His family has not disclosed any details of his illness/injury at this time.
You may send cards, however phone calls and flowers are not permitted at this time.
More information will be shared if it is disclosed.
Please keep Chief Altman and his family in your thoughts and prayers in his time of need.
UPDATE:
Billy is out of surgery and recovering. He still needs your prayers as does his family.
Anyways…the boys at 13 on B-shift finally found a helmet that will fit Tom’s head. It may not be as safe as a conventional helmet, but it fits. It is kind of like the Coneheads meet the Garbage Pail Kids.
I hope to see you around soon Dave.
I talked to David and Tracy tonight. David called to say hello and for me to give you guys an update. I have also been receiving updates through Billy Altman and David’s brother Tom as well. David seems to be in good spirits. He had a biopsy on his kidney yesterday. The doctor did the biopsy to make sure everything was ok. The biopsy came back as they expected; the kidney is still in great shape and is not being rejected by his body, however it still is not operating as it should be. The doctors are very optimistic that the kidney will “turn on” any day now.
I made sure that David and Tracy knew that if they needed anything we are only a phone call away. Some of the Henrico firefighters have been by to check on him and he was gracious. David is still in the ICU, therefore it isn’t too easy for us to get in to see him. Once he is out of the ICU he will be in a step-down unit and then into the apartment with Tracy in Henrico. We will be able to visit him once he is out of the ICU, which I know David will really appreciate.
Thank you for all the people who have helped out with David and Tracy and all those who have been asking about him. Terry Hauck has been taking care of the house while they are away.
Be sure to keep David and his family in your prayers.
Firefighter Frank Leonard has left the department to work for Bedford County. Frank was hired on September 22, 2003 and proved himself to be a great employee and a brother. Frank was stationed at Station 1 downtown on A-shift for his entire career (I am pretty sure). He is pictured here driving Ladder 7.
Frank will be missed and will be a huge asset to the Bedford County Department of Fire and Rescue which has recently expanded to include 16 more employees.
Frank, remember if you ever need anything we will be right here for you.
Check out how the fire the other day was featured on STATer 911 Blog.
Tracy is out of the hospital and staying in the apartment at the hospital. She is doing well and still recovering from the surgery.
David is still in the ICU and has been administered high doses of steroids to assist with the new kidney. His doctors are very optimistic that he is on track and his kidney will work out fine. However, right now his body is still getting acquainted with the new addition. His body is not rejecting it, it just hasn’t fully accepted the kidney to 100%. The doctors expect this to occur in the following days. David is currently unable to accept phone calls, but I will let you know when he is.
If you have any questions let me know or contact Chief Altman.
South Carolina’s Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service will be on Friday June 22nd.
The memorial service for the “Charleston 9″, Charleston Fallen Firefighters
Capt. William “Billy” Hutchinson, 48; Capt. Mike Benke, 49; Capt. Louis
Mulkey, 34; Engineer Mark Kelsey, 40; Engineer Brad Baity, 37; Assistant
Engineer Michael “Frenchie” French, 27; Firefighter James “Earl” Drayton,
56; Firefighter Brandon Thompson, 27; and Firefighter Melvin Champaign, 46,
will be held Friday at 1000 hours at the North Charleston Coliseum. If you
are planning to attend, make your travel arrangements now. Some of the
closest hotels will be in the area of the airport. When calling, advise the
hotel folks why you are in town and some may be providing special rates.
Here is a link for directions: http://www.coliseumpac.com/parking.php
If you are interested in going to the service give me a call at 540-537-8158 (cell). I am working today and will get back to you promptly if I am on a call.
Tentatively, we are looking at heading out tomorrow afternoon/evening, staying in or around Charleston tomorrow night, then coming back after the services Friday.
David has renal failure and will be receiving a kidney from his wife. Apparently the surgery is fairly invasive. David will have a recovery time at the hospital of two weeks, while his wife will only be admitted for one week post op. Following their time in the hospital they will have another short stay in an apartment attached to the Hospital.
Several people are keeping an eye the two, their children, and their house. I should be notified of the news after the surgery and I will pass it on to everyone. David’s brother will be with him through surgery and either his mother or his wife’s mother will be staying with them at the apartment. If he needs anything, he knows to call.
David has been in great spirits during this whole ordeal. I wish him and his wife a speedy recovery.
Watch the video and read more here
If you aren’t familiar with the entire story there is more information here:
Ambulance fire injures attendant outside Roanoke Memorial’s ER
