Oct. 8--A Vance County firefighter was presented with one of the highest awards in the profession this past week for his actions on Memorial Day weekend.
That morning of May 29 started slow for some Vance County first responders, including Capt. Mike Lejda, until black smoke from Granville County filled Henderson's sky.
Before 9:30 a.m., firefighters rushed to the ETC warehouse blaze. The Vance County Fire Department was one of the first county units on the scene, immediately following the Henderson Fire Department.
As the ETC structure fire popped onto the computer-aided dispatch screen, Vance County firefighter Lawrence Green's battalion chief mentioned it had caught on fire years before. Henderson's firefighters attacked the fire from the front, while Vance County's went to the back of the building.
After about an hour fighting the fire with limited staff, heat exhaustion set in for Green.
"It took a couple of days to gather thoughts on the fire, mainly because everything was blurry. I didn't lose consciousness but for a brief period of time," Green said. "It was not until I was on the loading dock that I remember collapsing into Battalion Chief Ken Reeves' arms. It's weird to understand, because it never happened to me before."
Lejda, in his 32nd year of firefighting, almost nine with Vance County, remembers Green going limp on the hose line.
"It was 90-plus degrees, and we were already on the fire at least an hour or so doing defensive," Lejda said. "I was backing him up, and at that point he went to his knees, and that's when I decided we had to get out of there."
Lejda pulled Green toward the garage door, where he was met by the battalion chief and emergency medical services medics.
Vance County Fire Chief Chris Wright was on the golf course when he received the call about the fire. En route to grab his gear, Wright received another call informing him one of his firefighters was taken to the hospital.
"That's a phone call that no chief ever wants to get," Wright said. "Couldn't nobody tell me why or what was wrong."
Henderson Fire Chief Steve Cordell would later confirm four firefighters suffered from heat exhaustion that day. Three were treated at the scene by EMS. Green was taken to to Maria Parham Health. Wright rushed to the hospital and found Green in stable condition, but overheated.
"One of the real reasons why he's here ... we teach it, we train it, we practice it -- two in and two out," Wright said. "For every two men that's in, there's two people out. You never go in by yourself."
Wright said Lejda would tell anyone he didn't do anything ordinary outside of his duties.
"But his training, his experience helped him identify that something just wasn't right, and with him being able to identify this and act swiftly and quickly, we were able to get firefighter Green out and get him the care he needed to be transported to the hospital," Wright said.
As Wright presented Lejda with the Medal of Valor -- one of the highest awards for firefighters who go beyond the call of duty or are instrumental in rescuing or saving someone's life -- earlier this week, Wright also recognized EMS and others in the audience, who were ready to take over patient care.
"Any of these guys can tell you that they have not deserved any medals or any time of recognition," Wright said. "They didn't sign up for this job for medals or recognition. They sign up to provide a service to the citizens to help serve and protect."
Lejda said he was doing his job and he just happened to be the one inside who noticed.
"I went back to the fire we started fighting, because I knew the firefighter was in good hands," Lejda said, calling the award a surprise. "Thankfully he was OK. It was a hot day, and even hotter inside the warehouse."
Green said everyone -- from the medics and attending paramedic Mike Grissom, to the doctors and medical staff at Maria Parham -- deserves credit, too.
"I appreciate everything they did, from the captain to the battalion chief, to the medics," Green said.
Green said his doctor at Maria Parham inspired him to make a switch to EMS, following the fire.
In addition to the Henderson and Vance County fire departments, the Oxford Fire Department, Henderson Police Department, Vance County Emergency Management, Vance County Rescue Squad, Vance County EMS and Bearpond Volunteer Fire Department arrived for mutual aid in the ETC fire that day.
In other local first responder-related recognitions this past week, the Vance County Fire Department received the 2016 Life Safety Achievement Award for having zero casualties within the fire district from the past year.
The Vance County Rescue Squad was also recognized with dozens of other swift water rescue teams in the state by Gov. Roy Cooper on Friday for efforts related to Hurricane Matthew last year, and received the international Higgins and Langley Award.
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