The community celebrated the life of Virginia Beach Fire Department Capt. Matthew "Chevy" Chiaverotti with a procession, including a stop at Station 7 in Town Center, where Chiaverotti worked as captain.

He died on April 17 after a hard-fought battle with cancer.

Loved ones and longtime colleagues honored Chiaverotti during a service at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.

Chiaverotti spent more than 20 years working as a firefighter in Virginia Beach. Fire Chief Ken Pravetz described him as a natural-born leader with a "heart of gold."

Additionally, Chiaverotti served as a FEMA search team manager with Virginia Task Force 2. He deployed to catastrophes places like Haiti, Puerto Rico and Florida.

Back in 2012, he spent hours at the scene of the military jet crash known as the "Good Friday Miracle."

No one can say for sure whether that caused his illness, but a hazardous mix of toxins filled the air and the ground that day.

Firefighters who are diagnosed with certain presumptive cancers can receive compensation. Earlier this year, thyroid and bladder cancers joined the list of cancers eligible for benefits. The list already included leukemia, pancreatic, prostate, rectal, throat, ovarian, breast, colon, brain, or testicular cancer.

Photography by Craig McClure

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Photos from a buff trip to the City of Detroit on or about the 4th of July 2016

A beautiful fire that kept our love burning.. lol .. Kept us warm from a freak weather in Portland, OR

Fire Rainbow seen in cirrus clouds over the fields in Welton Arizona.

Photo by David Sherman

Helideck Fire Monitor against sky,

Firing Line (Line of David) trains for the Preakness Stakes (Gr I) at Pimlico Racecourse 5/15/15. Trainer: Simon Callaghan. Owner: Arnold Zetcher LLC

making coffee in a percolator for use on fire.

Location : Hampton (NH - USA)

The Fire Event 2011. Held on New Year's Day, this was the closing ceremony of the 2010-11 Woodford Folk Festival, held near Brisbane in Queensland Australia.

Artistic Director Paul Lawler is at left.

The Thomas Fire burns in the hills above Los Padres National Forest Friday December 22nd, 2017. Also examples of structures that survived the fire with defensible space. As of Friday evening the fire was 272,800 acres and 65% contained.

171222-FS-LosPadres-SP-019

Forest Service Photo by Stuart Palley

My dad is a firefighter and he's actually inside of this building putting the fire out.

Strobist info:

580 EXII Master on camera

580 EXII Slave on a stand (no light modifiers)

Slave was fired via RadioPoppers

Master/Slave ratio set to 1:4 ratio (master played fill while slave played main)

Camera exposure was set for background with the flash using eTTL to set the flash exposure.

Fire-breasted Flowerpecker

(Dicaeum ignipectus)

Phulchowki Hill,

Kathmandu,

Nepal

Waterford Fire Department in the Albany St. Patrick's Day parade

LP Gas Emergency Training

Fire at Convoy Construction Materials in the Richmond Industrial Park in Grande Prairie, April 9, 2015

ID 419 - Odiham Fire Show on 3rd August 2008

Costume Parade

Fire Gypsy in Rome, Italy

I've been going a bit mad with the sparks and fire the past couple of days so I promise something different tomorrow :}

Taken with my Panasonic DMC-GF1 w/ 20mm f/1.7 lens.

We visited the local fire station in-between calls..

Great place, loads of kit!