Firehouse Magazine Rescue Award Winners for 1998
These winners were recognized in the April, 1999 Issue of Firehouse Magazine.
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| Ron G. McFadden | LA City, CA | Peter Colli | Lindenhurst, NY | Francis X. Hanlon | Anne Arundel County, MD |
| Robert Martin | Chicago, IL | Francis G. Clines | Boston, MA | Larry Poteet | Anne Arundel County, MD |
| Robert Branch | Houston, TX | John F. Linnell | Boston, MA | Rayburn Smallwood | Anne Arundel County, MD |
| Robert Yarborough | Houston, TX | Richard Quinlan | Boston, MA | Doug Hancock | Houston, TX |
| Michael Crachiola | Detroit, MI | Greg Dickson | St. Louis, MO | Robert Ross | Houston, TX |
| Barry Ussery | Charlotte, NC | Phillip W. Bonnell | Columbus, OH | Dave Rispoli | Newark, NJ |
| Michael G. Byrd | Bladen County, NC | Christopher Hamlin | Brockport, NY | Thomas Aquino | Montgomery County, MD |
| Paul Campson | E. Farmingdale, NY | Christian A. McCullough | Brockport, NY | Philip DiMaria | Miami, FL |
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Engine 79
responded to a report that a passenger vehicle had gone into the California Aqueduct while
evading an accident. The aqueduct is 30 feet across and 20 feet deep. Two of the occupants
had escaped the vehicle, but
a 9-year-old child remained trapped. Firefighter McFadden, a specialist in swift water rescue and urban search and rescue, donned an SCBA, tethered himself to a safety line, and entered the water. The temperature was 65 degrees Fahrenheit. In zero visibility, he located the car by touch. He swam into the open window, unbuckled the victim and brought her to the surface. She had no pulse and was not breathing. Firefighters on the scene provided advanced life support. The girl made a full recovery. |
Ron G. McFadden Los Angeles, CA County FD |
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Upon arrival at a burning two-story dwelling, large volumes
of smoke were coming from the building. A young girl was frantically screaming that her
grandmother was still inside and unable to escape. In dense smoke and tremendous heat,
Lieutenant Martin crawled through the front door and searched through the living room and
kitchen into the dining room, where he found the victim, who was unable to move. Martin dragged the 87-year-old woman — who weighed approximately 350 pounds — to safety. She recovered from her injuries. |
Robert Martin Chicago, IL FD |
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Robert Branch |
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Houston, TX FD |
Houston, TX FD |
| On March 20, 1998 Firefighters from Rescue 42, Engine 17 and Ambulance 17 responded to a report of a cave in. They found a trench work site. A cave-in had trapped one victim. Four workers trying to dig their co-worker free were removed. The trench was 30 feet long , 10 feet wide, and 25 feet deep. A trench box extended 3/4 of its length. The victim was buried in waist deep mud and dirt just outside of the trench box. He was unconscious and having difficulty breathing. E17’s crew immediately entered the trench and attempted to provide direct ventilation to the patient with oxygen and a bag valve mask. The patient’s rapid deterioration led Firefighter / Paramedic Robert Branch to enter the trench and attempt to intubate the patient. | These attempts were unsuccessful, but Branch stayed with the victim, ventilating and monitoring his vitals. At the same time Firefighter Robert Yarbrough entered the unshored portion of the trench to set up emergency shoring materials. As rescue crews continued shoring the trench, a secondary collapse occurred. This collapse trapped both Branch and Yarbrough. Branch managed to dig himself out helped Yarbrough, who injured his leg in the collapse, to dig free. Branch went back in to his patient, who was now completely buried. Unfortunately, the victim sustained fatal injuries and all further rescue attempts were halted. The trench collapsed a total of six times during this incident. |
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In the early hours of
November 27, 1997, Thanksgiving Day, Ladder 30 responded to a dwelling fire. Heavy smoke
pushed from the dwelling, and people screamed for help from the second floor windows. A
ladder was put up and Firefighter Michael Crachiola climbed to the second floor. Despite the heat and acrid smoke Crachiola rescued five people. After their rescue, he entered the first floor, and on hands and knees found an unconscious child in a bedroom. He escaped and began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, which hecontinued until relieved by an EMS supervisor. Observing two other victims receiving medical attention in the EMS rig, Crachiola jumped in the driver’s seat and drove the ambulance to Children’s Hospital. Fire Fighter Crachiola’ s quick thinking and heroic actions exemplify the professional behavior of every fire fighter wearing a badge. |
Michael Crachiola Detroit, MI FD |
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On March 10, 1998, a woman reported to the Charlotte Fire
Department that her house was on fire. When asked if she could get out, she gasped for air
and frantically replied, "No, I’m a cripple." The next eight minutes would
prove to be the most traumatic time of her life. Dispatch passed this on to the crew of
Engine 13. Upon arrival the crew saw heavy smoke and fire showing from a bedroom window
and the front door. Recognizing that time was of the essence, Firefighter Barry Ussery ran through the front door without the protection of a hoseline to execute the rescue. In zero visibility and extreme heat he made his way through the fire and past the fire room to find Mrs. Moore tangled up in her walker. Firefighter Clint Humphries, battling the same obstacles, entered with a hoseline, knocked down the fire just enough to keep it off the victim, Ussery and himself, then abandoned the line to help Ussery to remove the victim. Firefighter Riddle of Ladder 13 also made entry, met Ussery and Humphries halfway down the hall near the fire room, and assisted in removing Mrs. Moore. She made a complete recovery. |
Barry Ussery Charlotte, NC FD |
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On Saturday, August 8, 1998, Mitchell Byrd, Fire Marshal
for Bladen County, was cutting his grass when the White Oak Fire Department was dispatched
to an accident within two miles of his home. Byrd was the first firefighter to arrive on
the scene. Bystanders were yelling for someone to get a baby out of the car. Byrd donned his turnouts and climbed on top of the two wrecked vehicles. Three people were pinned in the wreckage, with a nine month old infant strapped in a car seat that was jammed between the dashboard and the passenger door. Byrd managed to free the infant, but unfortunately the baby was dead. He then tried to rescue the two women trapped in the car. The White Oak Fire Department had now arrived, and under Byrd’s direction they began to force open the door and. Byrd began first aid on the driver of the vehicle, who was having trouble breathing. Byrd assisted her with rescue breathing, and tried to remove all the blood from her mouth. Once the door was opened, Byrd and the firemen removed her from the car. Byrd returned to the vehicle and removed the passenger in the back seat of the car. He began rescue breathing for her when she stopped breathing. Byrd restored her breathing and turned her over to rescue workers. |
Michael G. Byrd Bladen County Fire Elizabethtown, NC |
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Paul Campson, East Farmingdale, NY FD |
Peter Colli, Copiague FD, Lindenhurst, NY |
| At 1:30 PM on
January 13, 1998 the East Farmingdale Fire Rescue was returning from a call when they
spotted heavy smoke in the area of Dixon Ave. and 33rd Street in Copiague. They
investigated and found a two story frame house with fire venting from the left front
bedroom. At the same time, Copiague Volunteer Firefighter Peter Colli, returning from work, was in the area and also went to investigate. Several neighbors were yelling that the structure’s elderly resident had gone back into the house for his dogs. Colli and off duty Volunteer Firefighter Paul Campson determined to rescue the man. |
Without benefit
of protective gear or hoseline, both firefighters entered the house through the front
door, with smoke down to about two feet above the floor. They crawled past the bedroom,
which was venting fire into the hallway, and found the unconscious victim. They pulled him to the front door and with the aid of Farmingdale Rescue crew members carried 75 year old Arne Sorenson to the edge of the front lawn. As they performed chest compressions, they heard a loud whoosh and turned around to find that the house had just flashed over. |
Boston MA FD |
Boston MA FD |
Boston MA FD |
| On July 15, 1998 Box 1525
was struck for a building fire that eventually went to 4 alarms. Heavy smoke was showing
from all floors. Firefighter John Linnell, Ladder 17, climbed the aerial ladder to the
roof and began vertical ventilation. Firefighter Francis Clines, Ladder 24, was climbing
his company’s aerial ladder to assist in roof ventilation when he saw a woman lying
inside a third floor window. He climbed off the ladder on to the ledge outside the window and yelled to Linnell for help. Linnell slid down the mansard part of the roof to the ledge and smashed the window with his helmet to gain entry. He entered the room, now charged with heavy smoke and heat, and found an unconscious woman on the floor. Assisted by Clines, who had also entered the room, Linnell carried her to the window. Ladder 17’s aerial ladder was lowered from the roof to this location, where the woman was carried down to the street by fire fighters. |
She was in
respiratory arrest with a weak pulse. Fire fighters performed rescue breathing until she
began breathing. She was removed to the hospital still unconscious but breathing on her
own. In another part of this blaze, while a large volume of fire erupted from the first
floor, a man appeared at a third floor window. Ladder 17 threw a 35 foot ground ladder to the third floor, hampered by a large tree which was blocking the entire front of the building. Lieutenant Richard Quinlan climbed the ladder above the fire to rescue the trapped man. He was hanging on the window ledge and about to drop to the ground. Quinlan reached over, grabbed him from the ledge, placed him on the ladder, and guided him to safety. |
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On December 10, 1997 Engine 4 was dispatched and found
heavy fire showing from the second floor of a two story brick residence. Firefighter Greg
Dickson and other members of the company stretched a 1-¾" line to the front door.
After repeated attempts Dickson forced the door from its hinges. They advanced to the second floor, where they met heavy heat and smoke with zero visibility. Dickson crawled down the hallway through the fire and smoke, where he found a victim. He dragged the man back down the hall to the top of the stairs. With the help of another firefighter he made his way down the stairs with the victim to safety. The man was found to have no pulse or breathing. CPR was begun and continued until the he was passed to a medical unit. The man was transported to a near-by hospital and eventually recovered. |
Greg Dickson St. Louis, MO FD |
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Engine 14 responded to a call for an
ill person. The crew checked the lobby of a motel and saw that it was in a shambles and
that a knife was lying on the floor. They notified the police of a possible burglary. They
then saw an elderly woman lying in a dark side room crying out for help. They forced the
door and found a badly beaten victim. There was also a man in the room whom the woman identified as her attacker. She said that he had robbed and tried to kill her. Firefighter Bonnell held the attacker at bay with the ax he had used to force the door. Police arrived and took the suspect into custody. Firefighter Bonnell took control of a dangerous situation which led to the arrest of the robbery /attempted homicide suspect. |
Phillip W. Bonnell Columbus, OH FD |
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Brockport, NY FD |
Brockport, NY FD |
| On December 5, 1998, the Brockport Fire Department was
dispatched to a multi- story house fire with reports of people trapped. Flames were
venting from the first floor and heavy smoke was pushing from the second floor windows.
Firefighters were told that there was a man on the first floor and a woman on the second
floor. Assistant Chief Christian McCullough led an attack team from Engine 251 to darken
the fire on the first floor to make it possible to search for the male victim. This search was unsuccessful in the intense fire. The team left the house. McCullough and Firefighter Christopher Hamlin then extended a ground ladder to the second story, crashed through a bedroom window and searched for the female |
victim, with
the floor below them fully aflame and without a hoseline. McCullough found a 77 year old
unconscious woman lying on the floor. He and Hamlin carried her to the ladder, where other
firefighters helped to lower her to the ground and begin CPR. By this time fire had enveloped the second floor, and the firefighters’ SCBAs were ringing their low air warning. Hamlin backed down the ladder and Chief McCullough left last, sliding head first onto the ladder and down to the ground. As he did so the bedroom flashed over. The woman died at the hospital. Her son’s body was found in the kitchen after the fire was extinguished. |
| Ann Arundel, MD, County FD |
| On May 12, 1998 a
box alarm was dispatched for a dwelling fire in Maryland City. Engine 272 responded from
Maryland City, Station 27, with Firefighters Francis Hannon and Larry Poteet on board.
Prior to their arrival, Volunteer Chief Ray Smallwood went on location, reporting a
dwelling 50% involved with entrapment. He attempted a search, then exited and took command of Engine 272. Hannon laid a supply line to the scene while Poteet entered the dwelling without a hoseline to conduct search and rescue. While Poteet searched, Hannon stretched an attack hose line to the front door. Poteet returned to the front door, grabbed the hoseline, and re-entered the dwelling to knock down the fire so that he could continue searching. Hannon returned to the engine, set the pumps, and then donned his turnout gear and SCBA. |
As he entered the
front door he met Poteet, who had exhausted his air supply but had managed to
significantly knock down the fire so that further searching was possible. Hannon searched
to his left, since Poteet had already searched to the right. He soon found the lifeless body of a 3 year old boy at the base of his bunk bed. Hannon yelled that he had found the child, cradled him in his arms, and began to make his way back out of the house. In the hallway he met Lt. Ray Keiling from Engine 291 and handed the child off to him. Keiling left the dwelling and was met by Poteet, at which time both began CPR. Paramedics transported the child to the regional burn center, with Poteet driving the paramedic unit. Pulse and respiration had been restored at the scene and, with hospital care, the child made a full and complete recovery. |
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Houston, TX FD |
Houston, TX FD |
| Houston
firefighters responded to an apartment building fire. Units found heavy fire issuing from
a three story apartment building. Ladder 68, third on scene, was advised of trapped
occupants in the rear of the building. Access to the second floor apartment via the
stairwell was impossible due to fire. The wind had fanned the flames into a virtual firestorm, threatening to envelop two victims on the second floor balcony. Firefighter Doug Hancock laddered the building and Firefighter Robert Ross, through severe radiant heat, climbed the ladder to the second floor and rescued a two-year-old girl. The radiant heat caused this little girl’s skin to literally slough off in the firefighters’ hands. |
Hancock and Ross then returned
to the balcony to rescue the child’s grandmother. Other companies sprayed the scene
from hose lines to prevent fire from reaching the victims and rescuers. During the rescue,
the grandmother attempted to return to the apartment. Believing that there might be
additional occupants in the apartment, Hancock and Ross returned a third time to the
balcony. They entered the fully involved apartment and completed a primary search without the aid of a charged line for protection. Finding no additional victims, they exited the burning unit. This fire required three alarms to finally extinguish the blaze. Although the grandmother eventually died from complications associated with her burns, the little girl survived. |
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On the morning of February 2, 1998 off duty Firefighter
Dane Rispoli was driving in East Orange when he noticed a working fire in a house. East
Orange Fire Department crews were not yet on the scene. Rispoli left his car and ran to
the porch. Neighbors told him that there was a woman trapped on the second floor. Without any protective equipment he entered the smoke filled house, climbed the stairs to the second floor, and found a 40 year old woman. She was disoriented and in respiratory distress. Rispoli carried her down the stairs, where a neighbor helped to remove her to a secure area. She was transported to Orange Memorial Hospital and treated for smoke inhalation. She made a full recovery. Firefighter Rispoli was transported to University Hospital, treated for smoke inhalation and exhaustion, and released. |
Dave Rispoli Newark, NJ FD |
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Firefighter Tom Aquino was assigned as the small line hose
man for a fire in a single family home. There was a confirmed report of several children
trapped in the house. Aquino advanced a hoseline into the fire area under extreme heat,
fire and smoke conditions. He used the line to control the fire so that search and rescue
operations could continue. The fire area flashed over but Aquino held his position to protect the tower and engine crews. While operating the hose line, he also helped to locate and successfully remove one of the trapped children. |
Thomas Aquino Montgomery County, MD FD |
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When Rescue 26 arrived at
the apartment fire, they found heavy fire venting from a third-floor window. Civilians
shouted that a disabled man was trapped in the fire apartment. Captain DiMaria immediately
entered the building by climbing the outside stairs to the third floor landing. He forced entry into the fire apartment in heavy heat and smoke without the protection of a hoseline, since his advanced life support unit lacked a pump or hose. Placing himself at great personal risk, he conducted a search for the trapped occupant. Despite the rapidly advancing fire, DiMaria found the unconscious man and dragged him through the apartment to its exterior balcony. At this point the Lieutenant of a newly arrived aerial truck entered the apartment and helped DiMaria with the rescue. The two firefighters began rescue breathing at once. The victim was moved from the balcony to the street on the aerial ladder, and was transported to the hospital, where he made a full recovery. |
Philip DiMaria Metro-Dade Fire Rescue Miami, FL |
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