Firehouse Magazine Rescue Award Winners for 1999
These winners were recognized in the April, 2000 Issue of Firehouse Magazine.
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| Mitchell G. Byrd | Bladen County, NC Office of Emergency Services | George Ferguson | Columbus, OH FD | Joseph Johnson | Boston, MA FD |
| James K. Cheatham | Boston, MA FD | Donna Billingham | Columbus, OH FD | Joseph LaMacchia | St. Louis, MO FD |
| Walter Clark | Port Washington, NY FD | Robert Pineda | Columbus, OH FD | James Polson | St. Louis, MO FD |
| Geoffrey Cole | Port Washington, NY FD | William Griffin | Washington, DC FD | Steve Vaughan | St. Louis, MO FD |
| Giuseppi Sicuranza | Port Washington, NY FD | Sean Egan | Washington, DC FD | Edward Langdon | Island Park, NY FD |
| John Cocca | Rochester, NY FD | David H. Hall | Columbus, OH FD | ||
| Robert Denning | Chelsea, MA FD | Donnie W. Hall | Chesterfield County, VA FD | ||
| Jacquelin K. Downes | Miami-Dade, FL Fire Rescue | Scott Hargreaves | Evanston, IL FD |
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On September 19,
1999, County Fire Marshal Mitchell Byrd, had worked all day at the
Operations Center fighting Hurricane Floyd. As he was going home he
received a request for help from the Communications Center. Individuals
were going around road blocks which were designed to stop traffic because
of swift rising water. Communications could not get the DOT to respond
because of so many road washouts throughout the county, so Fire Marshal
Byrd responded.
At the scene he noticed a vehicle that had been swept off the road by the swift water. When he got out to shine his light on the vehicle, he heard a cry for help. The water had pushed a car with two passengers off the road into the river. Byrd immediately swam over to the car and got a little boy and took him back to his vehicle. He then went back and brought a woman to safety. |
Mitchell G. Byrd, Bladen County Office of Emergency Services, Elizabethtown, NC |
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On April 7, 1999,
while working in District 4, Fire Fighter James K. Cheatham was notified
of an automobile accident in that vicinity. He approached the vehicle and
observed an unconscious person inside. He immediately performed a primary
medical survey and discovered the man did not have a pulse.
He notified Fire Alarm by radio to send emergency units to the scene. He then began CPR, assisted by a nurse from Boston Medical Center. They continued CPR until the arrival of apparatus. Fire Fighter Cheatham assisted in placing the defibrillator on the patient. They shocked the patient twice and were able to establish a pulse. EMS arrived and transported the man to the hospital. Cheatham’s actions undoubtedly saved the man’s life. |
James K. Cheatham, Boston, MA FD |
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Walter Clark |
Geoffrey Cole |
Giuseppi Sicuranza |
Port Washington, NY FD |
| At
12:14 AM on January 17, 1999 the Port Washington Fire Department responded
to an alarm for a two family house fire. There was a report of victims
trapped inside. Fire Marshal Walter J. Clark found a working fire with
heavy smoke from all windows in the basement and first floor.
With the first due apparatus still a few minutes away, Clark donned his turnouts and SCBA and entered the building to search the first floor and basement. He had no hoseline. He searched the kitchen and an adjoining area before being driven out by the intense heat. Learning of a victim in the basement, he broke a basement window and lowered himself into the smoke and heat. He found an unconscious male victim on the floor and made two attempts to lift him through the window, but the victim’s weight made this impossible. The first arriving engine crew now came to the window. Lieutenant Giuseppi Sicuranza climbed in and helped Clark to move the victim to safety. The victim regained consciousness and survived for one week before succumbing to his injuries in the hospital. |
Chief
Geoffrey Cole of the Flower Hill Hose Company No. 1 arrived at the scene
several minutes after Fire Marshal Clark. The rescue of the first victim
was nearing completion. There were reports that a second victim was still
in the house. Equipped in full turnout gear and SCBA, Chief Cole crawled
into the building to supervise a full primary search of the first floor.
The basement was now fully involved.
Ahead of Cole were a search team and a hose line team. As the protective hose line moved down a narrow hallway past the basement door, it suddenly disintegrated. With the door failure came a violent flashover that ignited the heavy smoke on the first floor. The truck crew escaped by crawling out though the kitchen, but the flashover knocked the engine crew to the floor, dislodged them from their hose line, dislodged a facepiece of one of the firefighters, and melted helmet shields. Chief Cole crawled forward into the flames, grabbed the dislodged hose line and opened it to protect the engine crew. After the crew disentangled themselves, Cole guided them out of the house. He crawled out. a few seconds after the engine crew got through the front door. At this point the entire first floor exploded into flames. |
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On December 1, 1998,
Engine 7 was dispatched to the Genesee River to rescue a woman
floating face-up toward a tangle of debris and branches. Realizing that
immediate action was necessary for her to have any chance of survival,
Firefighter John Cocca stripped off his coat and boots, put on a life
vest, grabbed a life ring and without waiting to don a wet suit, swam out
with the rope of the lifeline trailing behind him. The woman was a little
past the length of the lifeline, but by using the length of his body and
reaching with his arms he was just able to grab her coat. He lifted her
head out of the water and protected her while other members of his company
pulled both of them to the shore.
The woman wasn’t breathing and had no pulse. She was transported to the hospital in a coma, suffering from severe hypothermia. She woke up two weeks later and was told how close to death she had been. Her doctor said that he had never seen a patient survive from the level of hypothermia she had suffered that cold December evening in the Genesee River.
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John Cocca, Rochester, NY FD |
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At 5:26 AM two
engines and two trucks of the Chelsea FD, and an engine company from
Everett responded to a fire in the second floor of a two-story, cinder
clock motel in an industrial section of the city. Deputy Chief Sullivan
reported a working fire and an additional engine company was dispatched
As the first-due pump began advancing an attack line through the front door and up the stairwell, Acting Captain Robert Denning of Tower 1 and one of his crew entered the building to begin a primary search, using a new thermal imaging camera placed in service a few months earlier. Denning moved past the engine crew and reached the room of origin. Scanning the room with the camera, he found a woman lying unconscious on the floor. Denning and his crew member removed her from the room, assisted by the advancing pump crew. They removed her to safety. She was hospitalized and released several days later. Other occupants, most of whom ignored the fire alarm signal, were evacuated safely by firefighters.
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Robert Denning, Chelsea, MA FD |
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While
off duty on April 3, 1999, Lieutenant Jacquelin K. Downes and her husband
witnessed a head-on collision between a personal watercraft and a boat in
the Intracoastal Waterway. Two victims, a father and his teenage daughter,
were thrown unconscious into the water, both landing face-down.
Lieutenant Downes reached the girl, who was not breathing. She turned the victim over and performed the Heimlich maneuver on the teen, who coughed up some water and began breathing. The victim then went into a mild seizure. At the same time, Lieutenant Downes’ husband rescued the father, who suffered a possible head trauma and became combative. Working against the clock, they moved the victims to shore while carefully avoiding any possible cervical spine damage. The victims were transported to a local hospital for treatment and both fully recovered from their injuries.
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Jacquelin K. Downes, Miami-Dade, FL Fire Rescue |
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George Ferguson |
Donna Billingham |
Robert Pineda |
Indianapolis, IN FD |
| On
August 27, 1998 at 0224 hours, Engine 7 was dispatched to 130 W. 9th
Avenue. Lieutenant Donna Billingham was relief officer and assigned to
Engine 7. Fire Dispatch advised them that a person was trapped. Engine 7,
Battalion 3, and Medic 7 arrived within 3 minutes. Upon arrival they found
a working fire in a two story multi-family apartment complex. Civilians
and Police advised them of a person trapped on the first floor at the rear
of the complex.
As they approached the window of this room, heavy black smoke was billowing out. The front of this apartment had fire extending out the windows and the front door was burnt away.
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Without hesitation, Firefighter Robert Pineda donned his SCBA. and entered through the window at the rear. An unconscious victim was located inside the window. With fire extending into this room, he tried but failed to raise her to the window . Firefighter George Ferguson reached inside and with his help the two firefighters wrestled the victim to the window. The bedroom was too small to allow for additional personnel, and fire was advancing rapidly into the room. Lieutenant Billingham, Pineda and Ferguson finally pulled and pushed the unconscious victim out the window. She was carried to the front of the building where Medic 7 began patient care. After the victim was removed an aggressive interior attack was begun by Engine 25. Had an interior attack been made from the front originally, the outcome could have been tragic. |
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William Griffin |
Sean Egan |
| District of Columbia Fire -EMS |
| On
April 11, 1999 an alarm was sounded for an apartment fire, with people
trapped. First arriving companies reported a three story apartment building
with smoke showing on two sides.
Engine Company 15 was ordered to cover exposures on the third floor to check for extension. As they advanced an attack line to the top floors, Rescue Company 3 reported two trapped civilians in Apartment 304. Engine 15 re-deployed to assist. Lieutenant Sean Egan of Engine 15 found Firefighter William Griffin of Rescue 3 with two hysterical civilians. The smoke in the apartment made it necessary to remove the victims as rapidly as possible. Griffin and Egan sacrificed their air masks to the two victims, and pulled them to a window in a rear bedroom. |
Egan
radioed the incident commander that they had two civilians trapped in
apartment 304. Smoke and fire in the building required rescue by ground
ladder. Truck Company 8 and the driver from Rescue 3 moved a ground ladder
to the window. Egan called for one of the members of the truck company to
ascend the ladder to assist with the removal of the two civilians.
With the ground ladder fully extended, it was three to four feet short of the window. A member from Truck 8 helped Griffin and Egan to drop the civilians onto the ladder. Both victims were turned over to EMS for rapid evaluation and treatment. Griffin and Egan returned to their respective companies and continued to fight the fire. |
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At 6 AM on January 16, 1999, Firefighter David Hall was off duty and on his way to work when he witnessed an auto accident at I-270. Hall saw a pick-up truck, with two occupants, flip onto its side and begin to burn. Hall immediately stopped and without regard for his own safety rescued one of the occupants from the burning vehicle. Even though the vehicle was completely engulfed in fire, he then attempted to use a small portable fire extinguisher to gain access to the second passenger. This valiant attempt failed, and the other passenger was fatally burned. Firefighter Hall received first and second degree burns to both hands during these rescue attempts. Despite these serious and painful injuries he continued to provide medical treatment to the rescued victim until Worthington Fire Companies arrived. |
David H. Hall, Columbus, OH FD |
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On the
evening of October 30, 1998 Firefighter/Paramedic Donnie Hall responded to a
single car motor vehicle accident on Route 10 at approximately 1900 hours.
Hall was off duty. Overhearing the call he quickly realized he was the
closest form of help, so he responded alone.
Upon arrival he found a vehicle in the woods with two critically injured occupants and a fatality. After an assessment he realized that there was only one viable patient remaining in the car. He tried to free the victim, but the man was entrapped by a tree and unable to be rapidly extricated. As Hall attempted to deliver medical care as well as to free the victim, the car ignited into flames, concentrated in the area of the victim and Firefighter Hall. Luckily a bystander had obtained a fire extinguisher and had placed it near the car. Hall grabbed the extinguisher and darkened the fire down to a point where he could focus his efforts on patient care once again. As he worked to control the patient’s airway the car re-ignited. Hall continued to disregard his personal safety to care for this victim. He risked personal injury from impinging fire to see to it that the patient was not abandoned and was appropriately cared for. Arriving firefighters controlled the fire but were unable to completely extinguish it. Hall continued to provide patient care as the necessary resources began to arrive on scene. He not only devoted his energies to the patient, but also directed others on the assignments and resources he needed. At the same time he calmed the patient as much as possible. Eventually the patient was successfully extricated and transported to a Level One Trauma Center where he was treated and later discharged.
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Donnie W. Hall, Chesterfield County, VA FD |
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On August 1, 1999
Firefighter / Paramedic Hargreaves was assigned to Ambulance 23 when a
call came in for a group of teenagers off the lake front in distress.
Ambulance 23 was just 3 blocks away and the first to arrive at the beach.
Upon their arrival, he and his partner David Cleland were met by frantic
teenagers who pointed to their friends caught in the water just off the
breakwater. They were exhausted from being tossed about and starting to be
dragged under the water by the strong undertow.
Hargreaves was a swimmer in high school and grew up in this area. He was very familiar with this part of the lakefront. Without hesitation or delay, he jumped into the water and swam out to the three teenagers, keeping them close to him while he waited for shore support to toss out a rope and bring them to safety. The water was rough and choppy and the area was very dark. Unfortunately, one other teenager succumbed to the water prior Hargreave’s arrival and did not survive. |
Scott Hargreaves, Evanston, IL FD |
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On June 23,
1999, at 2230, a high pressure steam line burst at the rear of 170 Tremont
Street. The pressure created a crater in the street measuring 10 feet in
diameter and 5 feet in depth. Rock and asphalt was ejected 100 feet
in the air before falling back to the street. An elderly woman emerged from
the building ,frightened and disoriented as debris fell around her.
Fire Fighter Joseph Johnson, Engine 4, saw the woman and without any hesitation or concern for his own safety, ran into this falling debris, placed the woman over his shoulder and ran with her to safety inside the building. |
Joseph Johnson, Boston, MA FD |
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Joseph LaMacchia |
James Polson |
Steve Vaughan |
St. Louis, MO FD |
| On
April 30, 1999, Engine 27B was dispatched to a basement fire with children
trapped. They met a hysterical mother screaming that her baby was inside
the house, which had heavy fire in the basement and thick black smoke
coming from all the doors and windows.
Captain James Polson, Firefighter Steve Vaughan and Firefighter Joseph LaMacchia (Engine 22) received general information from the mother where the child might be. All three men put on their masks and entered the building, going through the living room and kitchen, down the long hallway into the far rear bedroom of the ranch style house. Crawling and feeling systematically around the room in the zero visibility smoke and heat, Polson found the 8 year old girl on the bed, unconscious. He told Vaughan and LaMacchia that he had found the girl but was turned around and needed help in finding his way out. With loud shouts and bright flashlights, all three worked together. They made their way out of the building in less than two minutes. |
Polson
placed the child on the grass and Vaughan immediately wiped sooty vomit
and body fluids from her face and mouth and found that she had a pulse,
but was not breathing. Vaughan attempted mouth to mouth resuscitation, but
her airway was blocked. By then they had a medical bag and Vaughan used a
suction to clear her airway. He then began bagging her with 100% oxygen
while Polson held and tilted her head back. The 8 year old started
responding first by taking shallow gasps then slowly started to breath on
her own with her eyes starting to move.
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On the morning of
August 19, 1999 at approximately 0645 hours Captain Edward E. Langdon a
member of the Island Park Fire Department, was traveling east on Lido
Boulevard in Lido Beach when he noticed a vehicle in the center lane. The
vehicle had obvious front-end damage with heavy smoke and flames coming
from under the hood.
Langdon investigated and found a lone semi-conscious male occupant in the drivers seat. Langdon yelled to the driver to get out of the car, without response. Langdon now saw that the victim was partially trapped, with his legs pinned under the dashboard and brake pedal. His upper body was obstructed by a semi-inflated air bag. Flames were moving into the passenger compartment and out from under the driver side wheel well, where Langdon was working to free the victim. Disregarding his own personnel safety, and without any personnel protective equipment, Langdon reached into the burning vehicle to dislodge the man’s foot from under the brake pedal and to clear the dashboard from his legs. Langdon then dragged the man to safety. As Langdon and the victim reached the safety of the curb the car was fully engulfed in flames. Were it not for the swift actions of Captain Langdon, Mr. Pazunas would not have survived |
Edward Langdon, Island park, NY FD |
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