Jeff Avery is a captain and 10 year veteran of the Valley Park Fire District. In November, 2007, Jeff found out that he had been living with brain  aneurysm. In late December they operated and were not able to fix the aneurysm due to calcification.  On top of that he had some bleeding in his brain that caused paralysis on his left side.  At first we though that Jeff was going to need a second surgery after months of rehab, we have recently  found out that new vessels have formed to replace the bad one and there is a very good chance that Jeff will not need another surgery.  Jeff has a wonderful wife, three great kids and lots of friends and family for support, and Jeff has been in great spirits, with all things considered. We would like to ask all of you to keep Jeff and his family in your thoughts and prayers. If you would like to see how Jeff is doing, please feel free to stop his web page that his brother has created for him. You can link to carepages.com, once you register and log on, just do a search for JeffreyAvery (no spaces) and it takes you to his page where you can see how he is doing and leave a message of encouragement for him.

Update: We recently held a trivia night / silent auction to help raise money for the Avery family so that they could offset some of their mounting medical bills.  The night was a great success, we had a great turnout and everyone had a good time.  The Avery Family would like everyone to know how greatful they are for everyones hard work at making the night a success, and would also like to thank everyone for thier generosity and kind words and prayers over the past couple of months.  Jeff is still doing outpatient therapy five days a week, and making great progress, he rarely uses his wheelchair anymore, just his cane, which they are working on not using at rehab, and is enthusiastic about getting back to work and even hitting the golf course.

Three to five minutes delay can mean death to a person suffering a heart attack, and it takes only two to three minutes for your bedroom temperature to reach 800 degrees should a fire occur. Life hangs in the balance and precious minutes can be lost while we search for your address, and we frantically try to determine, "Where are you?"

Here are six steps to help us respond quickly to your call for emergency services.
• Place all address numerals on your home near the front entrance, checking first to see if they can be read from near the middle of your street.
• Use LARGE pre-cast or wooden numbers 4-7 inches in height, painted in a bright color which contrasts to the exterior of your home.
• Do not use script (written) type addresses - under most emergency conditions they are difficult to read.
• Remove obstructions that keep your address from being seen from the street, such as tree branches, shrubs, bushes, etc…
• When you call us for an emergency, turn on your porch light and, if possible, have someone at the curb directing us to the scene of the emergency.

Remember...for any emergency call 911

Our dispatch agency, South County Fire Alarm, now has their own website located at www.scfa911.org. You can see what equipment they use, follow links to the different fire agencies they dispatch for, read some tips for how you can help when you call 911, and more.

Welcome to the Valley Park Fire District Website. We hope you find this resource to be educational, entertaining, and informational. Should you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to email us at 1941@vpfire.org.