Fairfax County, Va. –– One of the best firefighters in Virginia works in Fairfax County.
Capt. Chester Waters, Jr., an 18-year veteran of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, will be honored this weekend at the Governor’s Fire Service Awards recognizing excellence is service.
Working at the Pentagon following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and then at the World Trade Center in New York City one month later are just some of the stops along the road to his award.
“I just knew the situation in New York was a lot bigger than any of us, and our union representative asked if any of us wanted to go and help in a support role and I said ‘yes,’” said Waters. “I can’t imagine what [New York City firefighters] were going though losing 300 of their brothers and sisters.”
Back in Fairfax, he realized his heart was in training new members of the fire service, and applied to work at the county’s training academy.
To date, he’s trained more than 400 people – that’s more people that work on any given day in the fire service in Fairfax County, he said.
“My goal was to bring back the pride in these organizations, and I wanted other jurisdictions to look at us as one of the premier training facilities in the region,” said Waters.
Waters had no firefighting experience when he became involved with the Fairfax organization, and says he’s worked to lead by example that anyone who has their heart in the right place can be trained to become a firefighter.
The Governor’s Fire Service Awards were established in 2002, and will be held Saturday at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.
