Fighting fires is dangerous work. In 2014, according to the
National Fire Protection Association, 64 firefighters in the
United States were killed in the line of duty. This was down
from 97 deaths in 2013.
The danger is not just physical. Dealing with death and
injury takes an emotional toll too – albeit sometimes harder
to identify.
To help first responders deal with stress, Fairfax County has
a team of seven volunteer chaplains to minister to nearly
1,700 firefighters and emergency medical personnel.
The chaplains are not a replacement for a person’s minister
or priest; they are there to listen, and they listen to
believers and non-believers.
Father Bill Korpi, parochial vicar of Church of the Nativity
in Burke, is the Catholic chaplain who serves firefighters in
Battalion 5 that includes the Franconia, Springfield, Edsall
Road, West Springfield and Kingstowne fire stations. The
Burke fire station is near Nativity, so he goes there to
sometimes just to sit and have coffee – and to listen and, if
need be, to talk.
Father Korpi said he became interested in ministering to
firefighters when he was a seminarian at Blessed John XXIII
Seminary in Weston, Mass.
As a seminarian, he was assigned to Sacred Heart Church in
Baradford, Mass., whose pastor, Father Bob Conole, was a
firefighter before he was ordained. He remained the chaplain
after his ordination, and it was he who inspired Father Korpi
to enter the ministry.
When Father Conole was on chaplain duty, he’d ask Father
Korpi to come along on calls. If there was a fire late at
night, the pastor would bang on his door.
“Hey Korpi, get up,” he would yell.
And he went with his pastor on calls. He said he got the
“bug.”
A ministry of presence
The chaplaincy serves firefighters, emergency personnel and
their families. They will help console members of the general
public affected by a tragedy, but the chaplains’ first duty
is to first-responders. They help them get through a crisis
situation.
“It’s a ministry of presence,” said Father Korpi.
Chaplains are on call for one week, roughly seven times a
year. Some weeks are busier than others. When he’s on duty,
Father Korpi sometimes gest a text or a phone call and goes
to a scene. More often, he shows up for coffee at the
firehouse after a traumatizing event. He sits near the coffee
pot – coffee’s always brewing in a firehouse – and starts a
conversation with someone he knows who just went through a
difficult call.
In addition to the firehouse visits, he often goes to the
scene of a fire or other serious incidents.
On the scene
One evening the Fairfax County police called Father Korpi to
a scene in Vienna. They needed a Catholic chaplain.
There was a woman in the backyard lying on her back on the
grass, like she was stargazing. There was a lunar eclipse
that evening. He remembers her husband telling the police,
“I won’t talk to anyone until I see a Catholic priest next to
my wife.”
The woman was dead.
Father Korpi knelt next to her and recited the prayers for
the deceased.
Later the man was calmly talking to police. Father Korpi
never found out the reason for the death, and that’s not
unusual.
During the derecho storm in 2012 that knocked power out to
more than a million people in the Washington metropolitan
area and flooded basements and downed trees, Father Korpi was
riding with the volunteer chief from the Burke fire station.
He called Father Korpi when he heard about the rising water.
The water rose on Telegraph Road in Alexandria stranding
about 82 cars for hours on a bridge near Davidson Air Field
at Fort Belvoir. Father Korpi was stuck there too. He put on
his firefighter gear and prepared to help the stranded.
He saw a family he recognized, but because of his fire
helmet, the family did not immediately recognize him.
“I’m a chaplain,” he said.
He took his helmet off and showed the family who he was.
“Thank God you’re here,” one of the occupants said.
“You’re going to have a story to tell,” he told the children.
In the firehouse
The chaplains often develop close friendships with each
other. Father Korpi and Greek Orthodox Deacon Harry Chelpon
call each other “battle buddies.”
They cover each other when one of them can’t make a duty
assignment, or if one needs help.
There have been other serious incidents that made the news
where Father Korpi and his “battle buddy “and other chaplains
have been involved. One was the death of a Brazilian police
officer at the 2015 World Police and Fire Games in Fairfax.
The man who died was Catholic, and Father Korpi organized the
memorial service.
Firefighters are notoriously tight-lipped about sharing their
feelings. After an incident a chaplain will come to the
firehouse to help firefighters over a rough time. But you
can’t just ask them how they’re doing, said Father Korpi.
“The answer will always be, ‘I’m fine,'” he said.
“We are hesitant to share,” said firefighter/paramedic Tory
Albertson. “I’m a man of faith,” he said. “(This ministry) is
a huge boon to me.” Although Albertson is not Catholic, he
appreciates the chaplain’s work.
The firehouse is like a family, according to Burke fire
station Captain Tim Barb. He’s been to the chaplains’
churches and worshiped with them. If he needs someone there
for spiritual help, he calls them.
“The Holy Spirit is here,” said Deacon Chelpon.
Firefighters sometimes will say that Jesus is a
first-responder. He may be, and the men and women
firefighters are His instruments.
