In November of 1989, Stewart Sandwiches, a one story commercial building on Curlew Drive in Norfolk, had heavy smoke and fire showing from the roof. The three alarm fire brought many spectators to the area. Martin Grube (VBFD ) was looking through the camera lens and kept seeing another photographer moving about shooting one image after another. Who was this guy that kept moving about on the fire scene? After the flames were brought under control, Grube approached this gentlemen and he introduced himself as Frank Young. Grube told him that he too had an interest in fire ground photography and even published his own fire magazine. They exchanged numbers and kept in touch.

In the summer of 1990, a firefighter named Paul Koert ran into Grube. Koert talked about a photo club in New Jersey. Grube visited the New Jersey area and obtained information on starting a photo club for the Tidewater area. By September 1990, Grube began asking local firefighters if they wanted to form a photo club.

The Tidewater Fire photographers Association was formed in the spring of 1991.

On October 12, 1991, Grube signed up for the first Metromedia alphanumeric pager and began entering all working fires, vehicle entrapments and other breaking news into the pager by way of a alphanumeric keyboard. For several days, no one but Grube received pages, however, firefighters and the press were going crazy over the idea and, Virginia Fire Notification Network was born. At its peak, there were over 600 users on the system.

TFPA and the firefighting community  suffered a great loss of March 18, 1996 when Frank Young was killed in a fire in Chesapeake.

Please Note: All images on this site are the property of their respective owners, or the Tidewater Fire Photographers Association. They may not be copied, reproduced or otherwise used with out the express written consent of their owner or the Tidewater Fire Photographers Association. The images are protected by digital watermarks.

Copyright 1991-2008 - Tidewater Fire Photographers Association - Virginia Beach,VA.