Costumed Firefighters Give Children Halloween Treat At Loudoun Hospital

LANSDOWNE, VA — Spending Halloween in the hospital isn't ideal, especially for its youngest patients. But superheroes and other characters from Loudoun County Fire and Rescue made the day a little brighter for hospitalized children.

On Halloween morning, firefighters rappelled down the side of the windows at Inova Loudoun Hospital. Firefighters dressed in costumes such as Spiderman, Superman, Buzz Lightyear, Stitch, Mr. Incredible, Captain America, Mario and even a traditional firefighter.

Jason Ilowite, a lieutenant with Loudoun County Fire and Rescue, told Patch this was the first year the rappelling was organized at Inova Loudoun Hospital. Loudoun County Fire and Rescue has participated in similar rappelling in costume at Inova Fairfax Hospital.

Ilowite worked with the hospital to organize the event, which he says strengthens the fire department's partnership with Inova.

"Every firefighter, we do what we do because we want to help people, so that's just in our nature. For us, I can't really think of a better event than this," Ilowite said. "There's a really good sense of community. It checks a lot of boxes for us. It allows us to do the thing we like to do most, which is help people, bring a smile to some kids' faces on Halloween but also be able to do some really cool training as well."

Cindy DeFrancesco, child life specialist at Inova Loudoun Hospital, told Patch the event gives back to the kids and provides training to technical rescue firefighters.

"Kids love costumes but especially at Halloween, and it makes them know that they're not just sitting in a room and it's just another day," said DeFrancesco. "It kind of makes it a little more special."

According to Ilowite, the participating firefighters are part of the fire department's technical rescue team.

"There are several disciplines that we're responsible for, high-angle rope rescue being one of them," said Illowite. "We're using all the same skills that we would use to rescue somebody on the side of a building. We're just using it for a different purpose today."

Inova Loudoun Hospital is also offering reverse trick-or-treat for its pediatric patients on Halloween morning. That involves staff in costumes delivering Halloween treats directly to patients in their hospital rooms.

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