Local 2801 Suffolk Professional Firefighters

10/14/2026

🩺 Dedication (noun): the choice to give your time and effort to a purpose that matters.

Every Suffolk firefighter is already trained to an advanced level of emergency medical care. Some choose to go further.

Becoming a Paramedic, the highest level of care on an ambulance, means going back to school. In addition to the the year of education and training in the fire academy it's about four semesters of college coursework. The core of an associate's degree program: anatomy and physiology, cardiovascular care, advanced airway and shock management, advanced medical and trauma care, and pediatric advanced life support. Then come hospital clinical rotations and field internships, where students prove they can do it on real patients. 📚

Our members do all of it on top of working their shifts.

Earning the patch is only the start. Paramedics keep learning through continuing education, department in-service training, and recertification, because medicine keeps changing and so does the care they deliver.

Every one of our Paramedics took years to develop, and every one is worth keeping in Suffolk.

On every Suffolk ambulance, the Paramedic is the Attendant-in-Charge, responsible for the patient from the moment the crew arrives until the hospital takes over. No one is required to take that on. Our Paramedics chose it. 🚑



City of Suffolk, VA - Municipal Government
City of Suffolk Department of Fire & Rescue

10/14/2026

Rest easy, Cinco. ❤️🐾

10/13/2026

🚑 Commitment (noun): a pledge of time and effort to something beyond yourself.

Ask most people what a firefighter does, and they'll say "fights fires." In Suffolk, that's only the beginning.

Nearly every call our members run involves emergency medical care. Most are medical emergencies: chest pain, strokes, falls, trouble breathing. But crashes, fires, rescues, and gas leaks bring an ambulance too. EMS isn't a side job in the fire service. It's the largest portion of the job.

That's why every Suffolk firefighter leaves the fire academy trained as an Advanced EMT, a level Virginia classifies as Advanced Life Support. Advanced EMTs can start IVs, manage airways with advanced devices, and give medications a basic EMT can't. Many departments only require the basic level. Suffolk asks more of its firefighters from day one. 🚒

For many of our members, even that is only part of the job. On top of firefighting and EMS, they become Paramedics and many members serve on specialty teams: the Hazardous Materials Team, Technical Rescue Team, Search & Rescue Team, Marine Incident Response Team, Tactical Medic Team, and Communications Team. Each one means becoming a student again, with years of extra coursework and training, and then keeping those skills sharp year after year.

Over the coming weeks, we're going to introduce you to them. We're starting where Suffolk needs us most: EMS.

Local 2801 is proud of every member who carries that commitment that provides critical services that our community depends on.



City of Suffolk, VA - Municipal Government
City of Suffolk Department of Fire & Rescue

10/12/2026

IAFF Local 2801 is proud to endorse Leroy Bennett (Cypress Borough) and Shelley Butler Barlow (Chuckatuck Borough) for Suffolk City Council.

Both have taken the time to listen to our members and engage with the issues facing the women and men of Suffolk Fire & Rescue.

We also want to thank every candidate who reached out to and met with Local 2801 this season. We appreciate your time and your willingness to listen.

We look forward to a bright future for Suffolk. Early voting runs through October 31, and Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.



Leroy Bennett-A Voice For The People
Shelley Butler Barlow Suffolk City Council Member Chuckatuck Borough

10/10/2026

Congratulations, Lt. Posey!

After 28 years in the fire service, 23 of them with the City of Suffolk, Lt. Posey has officially retired. Thank you for your years of dedication to this department and the citizens of Suffolk. The members of Local 2801 wish you a long, happy, and well-deserved retirement. 🙏

We also want to thank Councilwoman Ebony Wright, Suffolk City Council, Sleepy Hole Borough and Councilman Leroy Bennett-A Voice For The People for being there to celebrate one of Suffolk’s firefighters. Showing up matters. Both of them have consistently been present in our community, represented their constituents well, and made the effort to understand the issues Suffolk firefighters face. We’re grateful for that.

Congratulations again, Lt. Posey. ❤️🚒

10/08/2026

🎓 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 (𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻): the state of being fully prepared to act when it counts.

Every call Suffolk Fire & Rescue runs starts long before the tones drop. It starts with an excellent Training Division. 🚒

Training builds every new firefighter from day one: the recruit fire academy, EMT and AEMT certification, and a Field Training Evaluation Program that follows each new member into the stations until they’ve demonstrated they’re ready.

And it doesn’t stop at graduation.

The Division keeps every member sharp through continuing education, Fire and EMS Officer Development, Truck and Engine Company Operations School, advanced EMS certifications including ACLS, BLS, and PALS, and other critical EMS skills.

The Training Division also assists with operational preparedness for our specialty teams and annual in-service trainings, including Mayday, ASHER response, and other low-frequency, high-risk calls. They have helped build, plan, and ensure the MARC-1 program is functional and meeting the needs of our community.

Behind the scenes, they track every certification, license, and training hour across the department — the same records that support Suffolk’s ISO evaluations. And they’re always looking ahead, watching how the job is changing and building the training needed to meet those challenges.

When a crew shows up at your emergency, the skills they bring were built here.

Thank you to the members of our Training Division and to all of our members who support the mission. 🙏

City of Suffolk, VA - Municipal Government
City of Suffolk Department of Fire & Rescue

10/02/2026

A Step Forward

Today, IAFF Local 2801 met with City Manager Kevin Hughes and Fire Chief Mike Barakey in a formal meeting to discuss the Fire Department, the City, staffing, the ongoing pay and compensation study, and the broader challenges we face: internally, externally, regionally, and professionally.

This meeting was about more than any single issue. It was about establishing a relationship, seeking understanding, and beginning the work of solving complex, long-standing problems together.

We see this as the first of what we hope will be an ongoing conversation, one that continues as the pay and compensation study works through its process, as planning and projections take shape, and as the real questions our members are asking start to get real answers.

We want to thank City Manager Hughes and Chief Barakey for the opportunity to sit down, find common ground, and begin working toward real solutions. We also want to thank the members of City Council and the staff within our city government who have taken the time to listen, ask real questions, and advocate for the women and men of this Fire Department. That support has not gone unnoticed, and it matters.

We recognize there are real hurdles ahead, and real work still to do. We also recognize the value of a City Manager willing to take the time, communicate his vision, and look for a path forward that works for everyone involved. We thank him for that.

Local 2801 remains determined to advocate for the needs of our members, and for the staffing and response capabilities the citizens of Suffolk deserve and need.

Today was a step. We look forward to building on it, and to the relationships still ahead.

IAFF Local 2801

City of Suffolk, VA - Municipal Government
City of Suffolk Department of Fire & Rescue

09/30/2026

Three of our neighbors are moving toward better schedules for firefighters.

In the last few months, three Hampton Roads cities have committed to cutting firefighter work hours:

Norfolk funded a fourth shift. It cuts the average work week from 52 hours to 42, with no pay cut, and the new shift is set to be running by July 2027.

Virginia Beach approved a move from a 56-hour to a 48-hour work week, as the first step toward a four-shift, 42-hour schedule.

Chesapeake announced yesterday that it is transitioning to a four-shift model, with significant hiring planned in 2027.

Together, that's 150+ new fire department positions coming to the region.

Each of these moves came from fire departments and city leaders working together. The reasons are the same everywhere. Rested firefighters make sharper decisions on emergency scenes, where seconds and judgment matter most. More time to recover means more effective service to residents on every call, from the first hour of a shift to the last. Fewer hours also mean less exposure to cancer-causing hazards over a career, and a stronger ability to recruit and keep good firefighters and EMS providers. Virginia's General Assembly encouraged exactly this change earlier this year, and our neighbors are acting on it.

Congratulations to our brothers and sisters in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Chesapeake, and to the city leaders who made it happen.

Suffolk's firefighters are watching. While our neighbors cut hours and invest in their people, Suffolk is still asking fewer firefighters to work more hours to cover staffing gaps, with pay that trails the region. We're proud of what our region is building, and Suffolk's firefighters deserve to be part of it.

City of Suffolk, VA - Municipal Government
City of Suffolk Department of Fire & Rescue

HB1333

09/29/2026

⏳ 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 (𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻): the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without becoming frustrated.

Last month we showed you the shorter term but present picture. Over the last two weeks, we showed you it hasn't just been a difficult summer through twelve years of Suffolk Fire & Rescue's own numbers. 📊

Overtime spending: up 194%
Calls for service: up 89%
Full-time positions: up 29% - still below the departments requested and researched needs

And despite all of it — despite budgets that never caught up, despite requests that came back short year after year — this department kept building.

Technical Rescue. HazMat. Communications. Marine Response. Search and Rescue.

The Marc-1 program bringing behavioral health, mental health, and community paramedicine directly to residents who need it.

A Fire Marshal's Office improving community risk reduction efforts, a FMO working K-9, Active Shooter Hostile Event Response programs and partnerships.

A robust training program that now has a regional burn building about to be booked months in advance, every single day.

Critical care–level paramedicine. Health and safety programs including Peer Support. Internal programs to keep I.T. and critical Public Safety response equipment operationally ready. All-hazards critical incident response planning.

And very proudly ISO accreditation, earned and improving. 🏅

This department has shown patience for over a decade — through a seven-year hiring freeze, through every budget cycle that asked for more and delivered less, and it kept saying yes anyway. 🚒

The data on staffing has been said. It's sitting in this city's own budget records, plainly, for anyone who wants to look. What's still unfolding is what this city is willing to do about competitive compensation — and that conversation is just getting started. ⏰

We're not going anywhere. Neither is the data.

City of Suffolk, VA - Municipal Government
City of Suffolk Department of Fire & Rescue

09/25/2026