
DATE: Wednesday, March 19, 1997             TAG: 9703190506

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   89 lines

CHESAPEAKE FIREFIGHTERS: ONE YEAR LATER EVENTS HONOR PAIR KILLED IN ACTION

For families and friends of two fallen Chesapeake firefighters, Tuesday was a day to remember.

On March 18, 1996, John R. Hudgins Jr. and Frank E. Young died as they battled a fire at an auto parts store. On Tuesday, at least three events paid homage to their memory.

At 11:50 a.m. - about the time of the last radio transmission from the two firefighters - about 30 friends, family and comrades gathered at the site of the blaze. Later in the afternoon, a memorial ceremony was held outside the fire department. By evening, the tributes turned into a party to benefit the Children of Fallen Firefighters Scholarship Fund.

At the informal midday gathering, Allison Hudgins, widow of John Hudgins, placed a heart-shaped wreath of red roses and carnations outside the Advance Auto Parts store in the 4300 block of Indian River Road.

``It was just something I wanted to do,'' she said. ``I had never been to the store. This way, when the public goes in and out today, they can remember.''

By the time Allison Hudgins arrived Tuesday, someone had already placed flowers inside the store, where the bodies of the two firefighters were found.

She said she went to the store to let her husband know ``I still think of him every day, every hour, and I still love him.''

A few months after her husband's death, Allison Hudgins started training to be a volunteer firefighter as a way to get closer to her late husband. She passed the state test last month and hopes to soon start fighting fires as a volunteer.

On Tuesday afternoon, Carole Victorio placed a spray of mixed flowers on the Virginia Beach grave of her son, Frank Young.

``This is just a tough day,'' she said. She said she planned to attend the memorial event at the fire department.

In the months since the deaths of Hudgins, 32, and Young, 38, there has been at least one significant change in fire department procedures. The department began a program to identify all commercial buildings in the city with the same lightweight wood-truss construction as the collapsed auto parts store. Warning decals have been placed on front and rear doors.

Edmund Elliott, deputy chief of operations for the Chesapeake Fire Department, said his department followed the example set by Portsmouth firefighters, who adopted a program to identify wooden and metal trusses in February 1990.

Lightweight wooden trusses are inexpensive, but they do not hold up well under heavy weight or during fires. They have been reported to collapse within the first 10 to 20 minutes of a fire, according to a Chesapeake fire marshal's report.

The plan calls for roof and floor trusses to be flagged on a computer when 911 calls come in. The information, already contained in three-ring binders at the fire station, will be highlighted or labeled with fluorescent stickers to make sure it is not overlooked as firefighters hurriedly respond to fires.

``If nothing else, it's just an extra measure of safety,'' Elliott said when the program was launched. ``If one person sees the sticker in the book or reads the file and acts in a safer way than they normally would, then the program has worked.''

Following the fire, Suffolk officials also followed Portsmouth's lead by identifying commercial buildings that contain trusses. That process is nearly complete, according to Suffolk Deputy Chief Sam W. Cowan.

Virginia Beach has taken informal surveys within engine companies but is not formally discussing such a program, Battalion Chief Mike Wade said Tuesday. However, some of the plans that identify buildings and potential dangers already contain the information about the type of roof, he said.

Norfolk, too, has no formal program. Firefighters do some truss identification at the fire company level, through building inspections and through what firefighters call ``pre-fire planning,'' officials said. ILLUSTRATION: STEVE EARLEY COLOR PHOTOS/The Virginian-Pilot

Chesapeake firefighter Richard Gayheart hugs Allison Hudgins, John

Hudgins' widow, who placed a heart-shaped wreath outside the Advance

Auto Parts store in the 4300 block of Indian River Road Tuesday.

``It was just something I wanted to do,'' she said.

Allison Hudgins said Tuesday was the first time she had been to the

auto parts store. ``I still think of him every day, every hour,''

she said.

Photos

John R. Hudgins Jr.

Frank E. Young KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT GENERAL FIRES FATALITIES

CHESAPEAKE FIRE DEPARTMENT