50 Years Ago, Two Va. Firefighters Died During Hurricane Cleo

Sept. 06--VIRGINIA BEACH -- The storm dumped 13.7 inches of rain on the city within 24 hours.

Hurricane Cleo -- a tropical storm when it hit South Hampton Roads -- washed out roads, submerged cars and brought floodwaters as "deep as a man's neck" in parts.

Small boats tied to piers filled with rain and sank. Shelters opened at several Virginia Beach elementary schools.

A Norfolk Weather Bureau employee at the time called it the area's heaviest rainstorm in hundreds of years.

Fifty years ago this week, two firefighters died while responding to calls during that 1964 storm: Chesapeake volunteer A.L. Johnson and Volunteer Fire Chief Vernon Wilson of the Davis Corner station in Virginia Beach.

They were the first firefighters in their newly incorporated cities to die in the line of duty.

"He loved that fire department," said Wilson's daughter, Sharon Cooper. "That was his life."

Back when her father was a firefighter, Cooper said, the volunteer stations were a central part of the community. The women's auxiliary held dances for teens at the Davis Corner station, and proceeds went to the department.

The firefighters, their wives and children were like extended family, and they often gathered for picnics and dinners in one another's homes, Cooper said.

Wilson was born in Norfolk and spent his life in Hampton Roads. He and his wife, Dorothy, met at Kempsville High School.

"Just all at once, we were going steady," Dorothy Blake said.

Wilson was wounded three times while serving in the Army during World War II. He sold livestock at home in Virginia Beach, which allowed him flexible hours for his volunteer fire service.

Blake said her husband spent many nights at the station, and Aug. 31, 1964, was no different.

Dozens of volunteer firefighters worked through the night to evacuate and rescue residents stranded in the storm, according to an article in The Pilot.

Wilson kept a fire radio at home, but Blake turned it off that night so she could sleep. She heard from her husband for the last time in the middle of the night, when he called to ask about a dry set of clothes.

Early in the morning Sept. 1, firefighters in a boat in Aragona Village spotted a stranded couple. They rescued the pair and brought them to Wilson, who was driving a rescue truck.

Between 3 and 4 a.m., Wilson's truck drowned out in high water. A fire truck tried to pull Wilson out, but it also stalled. A dump truck then tried to save both trucks when rescuers noticed Wilson and the couple unconscious. Carbon monoxide fumes had leaked into the rescue truck's cab.

Longtime firefighter Fred Quist was a good friend of Wilson and responded that morning in an ambulance. He tried to resuscitate Wilson, 42, all the way to the hospital.

The woman firefighters were trying to rescue, 40-year-old Stella Forehand, also died. Her husband, 49-year-old Dempsey Forehand, survived.

That same day in Chesapeake, Johnson responded to a fire call in Western Branch. He drove a fire engine through floodwater but learned the alarm was false. He suffered a fatal heart attack after returning to the station. He was the same age as Wilson.

Details have faded all these years later, and little more is known about Johnson.

But five decades after their deaths, their sacrifices are remembered, their names etched on memorials for fallen firefighters in their cities.

Quist, now 87 and a retired fire chief, lost several colleagues in his 39-year career. When Virginia Beach holds its annual memorial service for fallen firefighters and EMS workers later this month, Quist said, he will be there to honor his friends.

And Wilson is never far from his mind. Quist thinks of him still, every time he drives near the site where he died.

Margaret Matray, 757-222-5150, [email protected]