Firehouse Magazine Rescue Award Winners for 2003
These winners were recognized in the April, 2004 Issue of Firehouse Magazine.
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| James Mills | FDNY | Erik Wiener | FDNY | Dorian N. Jenkins | Boston FD |
| Jamal Bryant | St. Louis FD | Brian Morstadt | Columbus OH FD | Eric Withers | Charlotte NC FD |
| Peter Bongo | FDNY | Matthew J. Donachie | FDNY | Dan Dieters | St. Louis FD |
| Scott Kulpa | Columbus, OH FD | Paul D. Lucas | Boston FD | Vincent E. Dimino | Boston FD |
| Robert Morrison | St. Louis FD | Mark Nagel | St. Louis FD | Stephen Hagan | FDNY |
| James P. Ellson | FDNY | Michael W. Burnheimer | Columbus OH FD | Timothy Sparrow | Fairfax County VA FD |
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Ladder 176 responded second due to a basement fire in a two-story brick commercial building with four occupancies. Firefighter James F. Mills had already forced entry on roll-down gates, ventilated, and searched for fire in two stores and a basement when a Mayday was heard over the radio. A fireman from the first-due truck was in trouble. Mills moved to where he knew the first-due truck company was operating, in the basement with a hose line. He followed the line down an interior set of stairs. Visibility was zero, with heavy smoke and moderate heat. He met the nozzle team of Engine 227 and pressed on with his search. Within 40 or 50 feet he was unprotected by the hose line. After another 20 feet he struck an obstacle and crawled under it. Thirty feet later he heard a PASS alarm sounding and moved toward it. He found the firefighter unconscious and face down in water. He rolled the firefighter onto his back and placed his face piece on his face. Low on air, he radioed that he had found the firefighter. His exhausted attempts to move the firefighter resulted in only a few feet of movement. He continued to radio his position and his need for assistance. A firefighter from Rescue 4 arrived and placed his facemask on the firefighter. Only after another firefighter from Rescue 4 arrived were they able to move the firefighter. Members of
Ladder 176 breached a wall that led more directly to their position and
outside via an exterior stairway The main body of fire continued to burn
unchecked. After the firefighter was removed, all members were ordered to
evacuate and interior operations ceased. The area where the firefighter
was located eventually collapsed. Surely he would have died were it not
for the efforts of Firefighter Mills.
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James F. Mills FDNY Brooklyn NY Ladder 176 $1,500 Award |
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Engine
8 responded to a motor vehicle accident on an entrance ramp at Interstate
70 and Grand. The damaged car was blocking the ramp.
Engine 8 was parked just behind the passenger side of the car to
protect the firefighters and victims. Bryant was treating the driver for a
head injury. A vehicle
suddenly drove between Engine 8 and a police car that had responded to the
accident. A victim stood in
the path of the fast-approaching vehicle.
Bryant pushed her away to safety just as the car struck him.
If not for his unselfish and brave act, the victim would have been
severely injured. Bryant
suffered a serious head injury as a result of the impact. He was in ICU
for two weeks and then remained in the hospital. Firefighter Bryant
retired from the fire department because of his injuries |
Jamal Bryant St. Louis Fire Dept. Engine 8 1,000 Award |
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Ladder
153 responded first due to a reported fire on the second floor of a
private house with a report of people trapped.
Heavy fire was venting from the front door and a front bay window..
The first-due engine was on an EMS run, and there was an extensive
delay in placement of an attack line.
It was confirmed that an invalid was trapped inside the fire
building.
Bongo entered the adjoining building, exiting from a side door where flames were blowing out a window of the fire building five feet from this door. He ran down the stairs and up the adjoining stairs to the fire apartment. Fire controlled the living room, hallway and entrance to the kitchen. Bongo donned his self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) and hood and entered the building alone. The fire had grown to blowtorch intensity. He entered the kitchen on his stomach and crawled 25 feet. Searching only by feel, he found the unconscious victim lying face down on the floor. The kitchen walls and ceiling were now involved with fire. Pinned low to the floor, Bongo dragged the victim out by pulling her toward him while still on his stomach. He dragged her to the outside landing, where fire was blowing out the rear window. Near exhaustion, Bongo dragged the 250-pound, 74-year-old woman down the rear stairs to safety
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Peter Bongo FDNY Ladder 153 $750 Award |
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Scott Kulpa Engine 18 $150 Award
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Brian Morstadt Engine 8 $150 Award |
Michael W. Burnheimer Engine 7 $150 Award |
Columbus, OH FD |
| Engine 13 responded at 4 AM to a reported fire on the first floor and front of a three-story rooming house. The Engine’s crew proceeded to the rear of the structure, where they learned from occupants that several people were trapped on the second floor. Conditions were deteriorating quickly with zero visibility and high heat. Without protection of a hose line Firefighter Scott Kulpa climbed to the second floor and began searching for victims. He found an unconscious victim while searching a second-floor bedroom. As he removed the victim to the hallway, the fire extended into it. He placed his body over the victim and continued to the rear with the help of Firefighter Burnheimer, who had earlier found and removed a victim from the second floor. |
Kulpa
then re-entered the structure to assist Firefighter Brian Morstadt in
removing a third unconscious victim.
Morstadt (assigned to Engine 1, but working on Engine 13) had
entered the second floor without protection of a hose line and began a
search. He entered a bedroom and located an unconscious man in a far
corner. He carried the victim to the hallway, where he met Firefighter
Kulpa.
Firefighter
Michael Burnheimer of Engine 7 had earlier entered the second floor and
found a semi-conscious victim in the second-floor hallway. He removed the
now- unconscious victim to safety, making sure she was still breathing.
Burnheimer returned to the second floor, where he assisted Kulpa in
removing a second unconscious woman.
No sooner had they escaped the building when the second floor
flashed over. |
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Shortly
after midnight Squad 270 responded as the first-due engine to a fire in a
three-story occupied multiple family dwelling. Heavy smoke was venting from
the second floor and a victim was seen trapped at a rear second floor
window. Lieutenant James Ellson
ordered his company to stretch a line.
He entered and climbed the interior stairs, forcing the locked door
to the fire apartment by himself without tools.
He was driven to the floor by the intense heat and smoke. Without a
hose line, he crawled down the hallway and found a room heavily involved
with fire that was racing overhead. Flashover
was imminent. He found a
37-year old semi-conscious man with second-and third degree burns hanging
halfway out the fire room window. He
dragged the man back out of the room just as the entire room flashed over.
He then dragged the victim back down the hallway and the interior
stairs, passing him to the members of Squad 270, who were flaking out the
hose. He returned to the second
floor and back down the hallway. Still
without a hose line, he found in another room a 50-year-old semi-conscious
man. With fire blowing out of
the fire room and over his head, Ellson dragged the victim back to the
interior stairs and passed him to the members of Squad 270, who were just
getting water. He then led his
company down the hallway to extinguish the fire. |
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James Ellson FDNY Brooklyn, NY Rescue 2 $500 Award |
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Robert Morrison Rescue Squad 1 $250 Award
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Mark Nagel Rescue Squad 1 $250 Award |
Dan Dieters Engine 11 $250 Award |
St. Louis MO FD |
| Just
after midnight units responded to a fire in a three-story, two family
house. Heavy fire and smoke flowed from the third-floor front of the house
and a victim was hanging out a window.
A 35-foot ladder was being raised, but the victim jumped to the
ground before the ladder was set. Under
high heat and heavy smoke, Captain Dan Dieters began a search for missing
children on the fire floor. Entering
the rear east-side bedroom, he located an unconscious 5-year-old boy with
no pulse. He removed the child to the exterior, assisted by Firefighter
Martin. |
Firefighter
Roberts Morrison began a search for missing children on the fire floor.
Entering a rear bedroom with Firefighter Mark Nagel, he found a
9-year-old boy. They carried
the unconscious child to the second floor.
Morrison re-entered the same bedroom and found a 15-year-old girl,
who had no pulse and was unconscious. He carried her to the second floor
and handed her to Firefighters Barton and Ecker, who removed her to the
exterior for treatment. Firefighter
Morrison lost his life in the line of duty less than a month later, on May
4,
2002 at another serious fire. He was posthumously
awarded the department's highest honor, the Medal of Valor. |
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Ladder
111 responded first due to a structure fire. Upon arrival, heavy smoke was
venting out the third-floor windows.
The roof man gave an urgent message that the fire had blown out
both windows and was threatening another building.
The fire had consumed the two rear rooms and was entering the
hallway. Wiener began his
search in the uninvolved areas. Within
seconds, he gave his own urgent message that he had located a victim.
His task was to remove the 200-pound woman from a hospital bed
enclosed in a gate. There was
still no water on the fire, which was now roaring up the interior hall.
Wiener tipped the bed over on its side to bring her to the floor.
The woman grabbed the low-pressure air hose on Wiener's
self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), ripping off his helmet and face
piece. Wiener blindly groped to free his face piece from her grasp. Without
his mask, Wiener crawled and dragged the woman down the smoke filled hall
and down the stairs to the entrance, where Firefighter Hosie of Engine 214
ripped open two of the woman's fingers to free Wiener's SCBA hose. The victim and Wiener were both semi-conscious and had to be
carried to the street. Wiener
was hospitalized and spent several months recovering from his injuries.
The woman survived. |
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Erik Wiener FDNY Brooklyn NY Ladder 111 $250 Award |
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Paul D. Lucas Engine 17 $250 Award
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Dorian N. Jenkins Ladder 6 $250 Award |
Vincent E. Dimino Ladder 7 $250 Award |
Boston FD |
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On May 3, 2003, at 4:47 A.M., companies
were dispatched to a building fire. Upon
arrival, heavy fire was showing from a three-story wood-frame building.
The fire had started on an enclosed porch, broken through an
interior window, then extended up a stairwell, involving the first, second
and third floors and front porches of the building.
The crew of Engine 18 ran a hose line down the left side of the
building, where occupants were standing at the second- and third-floor
windows. Realizing that a ground ladder could not be thrown in time, Lucas climbed a fence and entered the rear of the building. He made his way to the third floor under deteriorating conditions. He had completed a primary search of several rooms when he heard cries for help. Lucas located a woman and two children in the front room. He held on to all three and brought them down through heavy smoke in the rear stairwell to the street. |
At the same time Firefighter Vincent E.
Dimino of Ladder 7 was alerted by a civilian that a man was trapped on the
first floor. Dimino went to
the rear and entered the first floor.
He struggled to the front of the building, found an unconscious man
on the floor, and carried him back to the rear stairs and to safety. At the same fire Firefighter Dorian Jenkins of Ladder 6 went to the rear of the fire building, where occupants reported to him that people were trapped on the second floor. Through heavy smoke Jenkins made his way to the front of the second floor, where he found an unconscious girl. He carried her through the smoke back to the rear stairwell. He noticed that the victim was not breathing and started CPR, removing her to the street and to EMS |
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Ladder 10 responded to a reported fire
in 27-story “fireproof” building.
A civilian informed Lieutenant Donachie of a fire in the cellar
with a worker trapped. Heavy smoke was issuing from
openings in the first floor. He
and his crew searched for the stairs in the thick smoke, tying off his
search rope, and 60 feet away found the cellar stairs. He and his crew 7 slid down the stairs
to the cellar floor and crawled 50 feet.
Navigating the hallway was difficult due to construction equipment
and debris. He found a second
set of stairs that led down to the switching room door.
Sliding down these stairs, he became aware of increasing heat
radiating down from the ceiling. Inside
this door was a free-burning fire started by the explosion of a large
440-volt, 2,000-amp switching box. Fearing for his crew’s safety, he
told them to remain outside the room while he searched it.
About 15 feet inside the room, Donachie found an unconscious burned
victim. He carried the six
foot tall, 250-pound victim with great difficulty through the narrow
space between the electrical cabinets to the stairs, where he and
his crew members carried the man up the stairs and outside the building to
safety. |
Matthew J. Donachie FDNY Manhattan NY Ladder 10 $250 Award |
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In the late afternoon of February 24,
2003, Rescue 10 was dispatched to Gaston County to assist in a swift water
rescue. Two adults were
trapped on rocks in the middle of the South Fork River.
The river was under flood conditions and the location was just
below a dam. The trapped
adults were suffering from hypothermia and had been trapped for three
hours. Several unsuccessful
attempts had been made to rescue them.
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Eric Withers Charlotte NC FD Rescue 10 $150 Award |
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Ladder 16 responded first due to a fire
reported in a second-floor apartment. The building was a 19-story “fire
proof” multiple dwelling. On
arrival members could smell smoke. A
scaffold blocked the view of the three lower floors of the building,
including the fire apartment. The
doorman and an occupant of the fire apartment told Hagan that a person was
trapped in the apartment..
Hagan and his forcible entry team, consisting of Firefighters DePierro and Hennessy, forced a locked stairway door to open. As he climbed to the second floor Hagan met high heat and dense smoke. Groping through zero visibility, he located the door to the fire apartment, which was at the end of an L -shaped hallway. The door had been left open — the self-closing feature had been disabled to allow access for the victim's wheelchair. Entering the apartment, Hagan ordered his can man to hit the fire extending from the dining room to protect his access. He searched until he found a hallway to a rear bedroom. At the door to this bedroom he encountered another blast of heat. The fire had burned through a secondary doorway of the fire room. Hagan found a walker, which led him to believe the person could be disabled. He then found an 87-year-old disabled woman in a hospital bed. Water was started into the fire apartment, generating a lot of steam. Conditions were starting to become
untenable. Due to the
wraparound feature in the apartment, fire and heat were being pushed
toward Hagan and the victim. He dragged her out of the room, down the hall
and stairway, and out to the street, using his body to protect her from
the heat and flames. She was
transported to the hospital where she went into cardiac arrest, was
resuscitated and placed in a hyperbaric chamber to remove carbon monoxide
from her system.
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Stephen Hagan FDNY Manhattan, NY Ladder 16 $500 Award |
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Units from Fairfax County Station 10
responded to an apartment fire. First-arriving units reported a
three-story garden apartment building with heavy fire visible from the
front of the structure and smoke flowing from all sides of the building.
Numerous residents stood at the third-floor windows and cried for
help. Master Technician
Timothy Sparrow noticed a woman hanging outside a third-floor window with
a child hanging around her neck. He
grabbed a 35-foot ground ladder and raised it next to the victim.
She attempted to grab the ladder, but her attempt was unsuccessful
and both she and the child fell from the window ledge. Realizing the potential for serious injury or death, and
without hesitation, Sparrow placed himself between the victims and the
ground in an attempt to catch the pair and break their fall. He partially caught them, and broke their fall, injuring
himself in the process. Ignoring
these injuries, Sparrow continued to protect them from the dangers of
falling debris and of other trapped residents who were also jumping. He was forced to crawl away from the building to seek
treatment for his own injuries. Firefighter
Sparrow placed himself in great personal risk by attempting to catch the
falling mother and child. After
a number of operations to his injured knee, he returned to duty in July,
2004, almost a year after his rescue. |
Timothy Sparrow Fairfax County, VA FD Station 14 $150 Award |
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