Three of the four firefighters who were hospitalized have now been released, after Friday’s house explosion, in Sterling, Virginia, that killed a volunteer firefighter.
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors says the still-hospitalized firefighter has been serving his community in more ways than one.
“The volunteer firefighter that’s in the burn unit, firefighter (Brian) Diamond, is also a Loudoun County public schools teacher,” Dulles Supervisor Matt Letourneau told the board Tuesday during a briefing from Fire Chief Keith Johnson.
“Firefighter Diamond, Mr. Diamond, is an eighth grade English teacher at J. Michael Lunsford Middle School,” in South Riding. “A very popular one, that students really enjoy — he’s got four children of his own.”
Diamond is expected to remain in the hospital for several weeks, during his recovery.
“You mentioned our schoolteacher — Mr. Diamond is going to be out of work for a long period of time,” said Chief Johnson, who said the Loudoun First Responders Foundation is providing support to Diamond, the other injured firefighters and the family of Trevor Brown, 45, who was killed in the blast.
“It sounds like his road is going to be long in the future,” Letourneau said. “But, certainly I know the community is thinking about him.”
Letourneau said the school’s PTA has already organized a month of meals to lighten the load for Diamond’s family as he recovers.
Johnson said the Fire Marshal’s Office completed gathering evidence Wednesday at the scene of the house explosion and will continue its investigation and analysis into the origin and cause of the blast.
Firefighters responded Friday for the smell of gas and discovered an underground, leaking propane tank.
Eleven firefighters were injured in the blast, but the Sterling Volunteer Fire Company remains on the job.
“They’re a very strong, operational fire company. And they are part of the Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue System. … I have 759 career employees. And then there’s over 1,200 volunteers. So altogether, we have about 2,000, what we call Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue System members. We work together seamlessly,” Fire Chief Keith Johnson told WTOP.
The Sterling Volunteer Fire Company operates out of Station 11 in Sterling Park and Station 25 in Cascades and works jointly with the Sterling Volunteer Rescue Squad.
“We staff the stations in Sterling, all stations, during the day … there’s a mixture of career and volunteers that staff their station at night … they have depth on the bench. But if they’re short, we step in and staff their units with them,” Johnson said.
“We’re able to make sure that every unit is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 [days], to the same level. No unit ever goes unstaffed and no unit ever goes nonresponsive.”
WTOP’s Dick Uliano contributed to this report.
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