The Virginia Fire Chiefs Association recognizes and is sincerely grateful for your unselfish devotion to the citizens and visitors of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is this unselfish devotion and commitment to saving lives and preserving property that pushes us to perform heroic and brave acts during times of uncertainty. It is these same heroic acts that sometimes cause us to bid a sad farewell to a brother or sister who has made the supreme sacrifice while answering their call to duty.
A firefighters death, in the line of duty, will be an extraordinarily traumatic event for both the surviving family, your organization and the members of your community. When this happens, the tragedy will most likely be a sudden event without any warning. The time period from the death to the laying to rest of our comrade will be extremely short and will require that your department move quickly, with great compassion and organization, to provide a fitting memorial for our personnel.
The purpose of these guides is to assist you and your department to better prepare and understand the services and benefits that are available to you and the steps necessary to perform these services and acquire said benefits at the National, State, and Local levels of government.
These guides will also provide you with a baseline policy that will allow you and your department to structure your policies that best suit your government, personnel, and departmental needs. It is our hope that you find these guides a useful and user-friendly tool, but that you and your department never have cause to implement them.
| Federation of Fire Chaplains |