Being a firefighter isn’t what they do, it’s who they are.
“It is just something once you start doing it you continue and continue and it builds within you,” said Wayne Cosner. “Either you are going to get in and be in here a couple of years and, BOOM, you are gone, or it grabs hold of you and you become loyal to the system and it becomes a way of life for you.”
Sitting around a table in the bay of Huguenot Volunteer Fire Department last week were four men for whom being a firefighter grabbed hold. Cosner was there along with Francis “Chuck” Urbine, Sam Llewellyn, and Floyd Greene. All four of them have volunteered in Powhatan’s fire service in various capacities for the past 50 years.
Each man had a different reason for getting involved, but all of them agreed on what kept them in – being a Powhatan firefighter became part of their identities.