Firehouse Magazine Rescue Award Winners for 2001
These winners were recognized in the April, 2002 Issue of Firehouse Magazine.
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Directories for 2001 Winners: Page 1 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5
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| Gary Boldrey | Orange County, FL FD | Sean Neary | Detroit, MI FD | Paul Columna | Miami, FL FD |
| Russell Barton | Columbus, OH FD | Anthony Bruno | Kansas City, MO FD | Allen L. Jones | Miami, FL FD |
| Lester Lash | Columbus, OH FD | Antonio Brooks | Prince George's County, MD FD | James Conway | Henrico County, VA FD |
| Ronald Bell | Detroit, MI FD | Jeffery Fisher | Prince George's County, MD FD | Eugene Gerald | Henrico County, VA FD |
| Randy King | Detroit, MI FD | Sean Gilligan | Prince George's County, MD FD | Brent S. Johnson | Henrico County, VA FD |
| John Boss | Detroit, MI FD | Rych Pullen | Prince George's County, MD FD |
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Firefighter Paramedic Gary Boldrey was assigned to Chase 5, a Bell 407 helicopter with Orange County Fire/Rescue. While monitoring a brush fire near a housing area, Chase 5 saw that the crew of a brush truck was in trouble. The truck had stalled and the fire had reversed course and was closing in on them. From Chase 5, Boldrey signaled to the two firefighters to head for a cleared area. The men began running, and Chase 5 set down in dense smoke in a clearing about two hundred yards from the brush truck. Boldrey could see that smoke blocked the firefighters’ view of the helicopter, so he leaped to the ground, held his helmet high for visibility, and ran toward the men. He found them and led them back to the helicopter, which lifted them all to safety. |
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Gary Boldrey Orange County, FL Fire/Rescue $100 Award |
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Russell Barton EMS 16 $100 Award |
Lester Lash EMS 16 $100 Award |
| Columbus, OH FD |
| On January 23, 2001, a car driven by a woman plunged onto a frozen pond, crashed through the ice, and began sinking. Lieutenant Russell 0. Barton, at tremendous risk to his own life, and showing courage not normally expected in these conditions, crawled out onto the ice and assisted other rescuers in a rescue, removing her from the car and getting her out of the water. Although Lt. Barton was in imminent danger of losing his life due to the depth and temperature of the water, he assisted in the successful rescue. | Firefighter Lash provided valuable care to the victim and transported her to a nearby hospital for treatment. She survived her ordeal. |
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Ronald Bell Squad 5 $100 Award |
Randy King Squad 5 $100 Award |
| Detroit, MI FD |
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On December 10, 2000, at 0130 hours,
while responding to a box alarm. Central Office informed Tactical Mobile
Squad 5 that an elderly woman was trapped inside a burning dwelling.
Lieutenant Ronald Bell directed Firefighters Randy King and Torin Thornhill to the rear of the house. Thornhill kicked in the back door, but flames were too intense to gain access. Lieutenant Bell went to a side window, knocked it out, and climbed inside — meeting intense heat, acrid smoke and flames, and began searching for the woman. Firefighter King entered through the same side window and was handed an attack hose line by Thornhill. King began knocking down the flames to protect Lieutenant Bell and then
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proceeded to assist Bell in the search for the elderly woman. Bell found the woman, but even with King's assistance he was unable to remove her. Thornhill then entered the dwelling to assist. The trio managed to hand the victim out the side window to waiting firefighters, who carried her to the EMS unit. Lieutenant Bell then fell unconscious. King and Thornhill handed him out the side window to EMS. |
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No Photo |
Sean Neary Squad 2 $100 Award |
$100 Award |
| Detroit, MI FD |
| Firefighter John Boss, Jr., responded on December 1, 2000 with Ladder 1 to a working fire. The crew of Ladder 1 learned that six children were trapped on the second floor. The two-story structure had fire on the first floor, and thick smoke coming from the second floor windows. Boss grabbed a red line ( a low capacity hose), donned his SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus), and entered the dwelling. With minimal water output, Boss and Firefighter Neary of newly arrived Squad 2 climbed a staircase filled with heat and smoke to the second floor. At the top of the stairs Boss (with the hose) went left and Neary (without a hose) went right. Boss entered and searched a bedroom but found no one. | He returned to the hallway, went right, found an unconscious child in the next bedroom, and carried the child back to the stairs, giving him to waiting firefighters. At the same time Neary found an unconscious child behind a closed bathroom door, scrambled back to the stairs, and gave the child to waiting fire fighters. Although burned on his neck and wrist and low on air, Neary continued to search and found a second child in a bedroom. Now out of air, he carried the child out of the dwelling to a waiting EMS crew. |
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Firefighter
Nino Bruno and Rescue 11 arrived at the scene of a house fire on November
26, 2001. They were told that a child was trapped within. The fire was
well advanced — venting from three sides of the house on the first
floor. Thick smoke reduced visibility to zero and the second floor was
beginning to light up as the initial hand lines were being stretched.
Crews had broken out the west window and entered to search for the child.
Firefighter Bruno climbed to the back porch roof with a thermal imaging
camera. He broke the east window and looked through the smoke with the
camera to find the child. Through the camera he saw the 2 year old lying
on the floor. He entered without the protection of a hose line with fire
still raging through the house, grabbed the child and handed him to
Firefighter Roger Tuder, waiting on the roof, who immediately began CPR. CPR was
continued as the child was taken down the ladder to the ambulance. He
regained a pulse by the time he was transported. Tragically, his injuries
were so severe that life support was discontinued two days later and he
died.
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Anthony P. Bruno Kansas City MO FD Rescue 11 $100 Award |
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No Photo |
Rych Pullen $100 Award |
Honrable Mention |
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No Photo
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No Photo |
$100 Award |
$100 Award |
| Prince George's County FD, Largo, MD |
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Lieutenant Antonio Brooks and Captain
Sean Gilligan responded with Company 2 to an alarm on May 21, 2001. They
found heavy smoke and fire coming from the windows on the front and left
side of a three story garden apartment. Two women, one of whom was pregnant,
had jumped from the third floor front window . Bystanders informed them that
a child had been seen in a window at the rear of the building. Gilligan and
Brooks ran to the rear of the building. They heard screams coming from
inside. They positioned themselves at the base of a 24-foot extension ladder
that had been raised to the third floor window by Firefighter Jeffrey Fisher
of Station 8. Fisher had climbed the ladder and attempted to enter the
building, but his lack of SCBA (breathing apparatus) made this impossible.
Donning Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus, Brooks and Gilligan climbed the
ladder. Without the protection of a hose, in zero visibility and high heat,
they entered the apartment through the window. Searching aggressively, they
located a young woman.
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They
dragged her to the window and passed her to Fisher, who was waiting on the
ladder. Captain Rych Pullen of Station 3 had climbed a second ladder, like
Fisher without SCBA. He reached into the smoke filed room, found a child’s
leg, and dragged the victim to the floor below the window. Almost overcome
by the smoke, he could not lift the child. Nonetheless he remained in
position until Brooks and Gilligan moved to the boy and passed him to
Pullen, who carried the child to the ground.
The woman was transported to Prince George's Hospital Center as a working code. She was resuscitated and transferred to Baltimore Shock Trauma, where she remained for five days before succumbing to her injuries. The boy was transported to Children's Hospital as a working code, and was admitted to the critical care unit. He was released from the hospital after one week and is doing well. |
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Paul Columna Aerial 1 $100 Award |
Allen L. Jones Aerial 1 $100 Award |
| City of Miami, FL FD |
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In the early morning hours of
September 26, 2001, a fire broke out in a 3-story rooming house. It started
in a second floor apartment when a mattress caught fire. The occupant
attempted to drag the mattress to the hall and down a stairwell, where it
became lodged. The occupant panicked and abandoned the mattress, which
allowed the fire to spread up the stairwell and into several third floor
apartments.
Responding Miami Fire Rescue units found heavy smoke on all three floors. Several occupants were standing on the second floor balconies, and through the thick smoke two faces were seen on a third floor balcony. Fire units laddered the building and rescued victims who were by this time straddling the balcony railings. Fire could now be seen from all third floor windows. A mother in fear for her baby's life dropped her daughter from a third floor window into the arms of a stranger, who handed the baby to a driver-engineer pumping his truck. With the baby in his arms he continued to work at the pump panel until a rescue unit arrived and took the child from him. A 42-year-old man also jumped from the third floor, landing in the alley below and breaking a leg. |
As the exterior rescues continued, crews were made their way up the stairways, extinguishing fire to make it possible to perform interior searches. Firefighters Allan Jones and Paul Columna, both members of Aerial 1, were searching the second floor. In zero visibility and intense heat they slowly worked their way through the rooms. With the fire less that 20 feet away, Jones discovered an inert body lying in a bed. Jones and Columna worked together to get the man out of the bed and onto the shoulders of Columna, who carried him downstairs to waiting paramedics. The Rescue crew worked on the unconscious man while en route to the trauma center. Their treatments were successful and the patient began breathing spontaneously. He was admitted to the hospital, treated for smoke inhalation and released several days later. |
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James Conway Company 11 $100 Award |
Eugene Gerald Station 5 $100 Award |
Brent S. Johnson Station 5 $100 Award |
County of Henrico, VA Division of Fire |
| The
incident occurred in an apartment complex for quadriplegics and
paraplegics.
On September 27, 2001 Units were dispatched to an apartment fire. Flames were visible from the window of one apartment. Firefighters were told that a quadriplegic was trapped inside. Station 5’s rig, with Captain Gerald and Firefighter Johnson, arrived at the apartment and made immediate entry. When they arrived at the fire apartment’s front door, they found it had been opened by a neighbor. Several neighbors told them that the occupant, a quadriplegic, was definitely inside the burning apartment. Without the protection of a hose line Gerald and Johnson entered the apartment, walked through the fire room to a back bedroom and located the occupant in his bed. The crew of Engine 11, led by Lieutenant James Conway , now entered the apartment and heard Captain Gerald calling to them through the smoke. |
Conway, too, moved through the apartment without a hose line. Gerald and Johnson had tried to remove the victim but his large size (over 300 pounds) made this impossible. The victim was in a hospital type bed, with a hospital type table in front, entangled with an emergency pull alarm, a phone cord, and a catheter. Gerald and Johnson stayed with the victim, shielding him from the heat and calling to the front door that they had the victim and needed help to move him. With Conway’s help they untangled the victim, lifted him from the bed and carried him through the apartment to the only door and down to the street. The victim was unconscious and not breathing. After patient care was started he had a pulse and was breathing when he left the scene for a hospital.
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