Captain America, Mario, Luigi, Stitch, Mr. Incredible and Spider-Man scaled down the side of Inova Loudoun Hospital this week, waving at kids pressed against the windows inside. The costumed climbers were actually members of Loudoun County Fire and Rescue, trading their usual turnout gear for superhero capes and overalls to surprise young patients watching from the pediatric unit.
The characters descended the hospital building on Friday, waving and interacting with children watching from inside, according to WJLA. Lieutenant Jason Ilowite, who suited up as Luigi for the occasion, said the stunt does double duty: it gives firefighters a chance to sharpen their technical skills while brightening the day of kids stuck in a hospital bed. The station reported that beyond the rappel itself, the superheroes connected with patients through games of tic-tac-toe, bingo and bubbles.
A Tradition Built Around Rope Skills and Smiles
This was not Loudoun County Fire and Rescue's first trip down the side of Inova Loudoun. During the 2025 event, Ilowite described the dual purpose of the exercise, telling Patch, “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.” That same year, fire and rescue personnel rappelled down Inova Loudoun's seven-story building dressed as superheroes and other fictional characters, as reported by Loudoun Now.
The hospital's Halloween-season outreach for pediatric patients goes back further still. In 2024, hospital staff and Loudoun County Fire and Rescue partners handed out candy and treats to children inside the pediatric unit as part of a reverse trick-or-treat event, the same Patch report noted. That tradition had been a fixture for several years before pausing during the COVID-19 pandemic and later returning in full. Pediatric unit staff that year also dressed as characters from Disney's Inside Out, with therapy dog Jeremiah making an appearance in a blue wig.
Not the Only Hospital Getting Superhero Visits
Costumed rope rescues for hospitalized kids are not unique to Loudoun County. Fire and rescue staff around Northern Virginia often take part in similar events to cheer up pediatric patients, including dressing as superheroes and rappelling down hospitals outside patients' windows, per the same Patch account. In 2021, members of Fairfax County Fire and Rescue dressed as Captain America, Superman, Supergirl and Spider-Man and rappelled down the side of Inova Children's Hospital in Falls Church to surprise patients there, according to People.
The idea has reached well beyond Virginia, too. Four members of the Columbia Fire Department rappelled down nine floors of MU Children's Hospital in Missouri dressed as superheroes including Superman, Batman and Elastigirl, according to the Columbia Missourian. That event doubled as a celebration of the hospital's first anniversary at its new location.
Back in Loudoun County, the visual of firefighters in Mario and Luigi costumes dangling outside hospital windows made for a memorable scene, one documented in an 11-photo gallery credited to Trevor Taylor of 7News. For Ilowite and his colleagues, the exercise offered a rare chance to combine high-angle training with the kind of moment that patients and their families are likely to remember long after Halloween has passed.
