We are pleased to announce the newest honorees in our 2014 Firehouse Magazine Heroism Awards program. All displayed great bravery in the face of dangerous conditions.
We would like to thank the judges: Deputy Chief William Goldfeder of the Loveland-Symmes, OH, Fire Department; Deputy Chief John B. Tippett, Jr. of the Charleston, SC, Fire Department; Assistant Chief Brian Fennessy of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department; and Assistant Chief Brian Schaeffer of the Spokane, WA, Fire Department. We also thank retired FDNY Rescue 1 Firefighter Paul Hashagen, who administers the program.
#1: Firefighter Dominick Muschello
FDNY, Ladder 157
Just after midnight on Nov. 19, 2014, Firefighter Muschello was placing equipment back on Ladder 157’s apparatus from a previous fire run when a child came running into the station, reporting a fire just a few blocks away. He notified the others in the station, and they arrived to fire venting from second-floor windows of the three-story multiple dwelling. As they exited the apparatus, multiple witnesses told crews that people were trapped inside. Using the tower ladder basket as a shield, Firefighter Muschello rode it through the flames to the third floor where the people were reported to be. He began searching the hoarded apartment where flames were already breaking through the floor and extending to the third floor and in the hallway outside. He located a victim who he pulled over the debris to the window. Shielding the victim from flashover-like conditions, Muschello removed them to the tower ladder bucket with the help of Firefighter Brian Clifford and then down to the street where EMS crews took over. Although exhausted, Muschello returned to the third floor via the tower ladder with Clifford to search for additional victims. They located a second victim in the hallway and removed that victim through the window.
#2: Firefighter Adam Burlison
FDNY, Ladder 26
On Jan. 5, 2014, Firefighter Burlison was riding as the roof position on the only truck company assigned to a high-rise fire in Midtown Manhattan, so when the first-due companies reported fire coming from four windows on the 20th floor, he knew he had his work cut out for him. He ascended the stairs of the attack stairwell from the fire floor and searched for victims under high heat and dense smoke as he made his way to the roof in order to open the bulkhead to provide vertical ventilation. At the 30th floor, he encountered an unconscious male on the landing. He dragged the victim, who was bleeding profusely from the head, into the common hallway until he found an apartment where a resident was sheltered in place. He radioed the IC to report his location and initiated CPR until another crew arrived to relieve him. Burlison returned to the stairwell where he found a person in cardiac arrest on the 31st floor. He dragged that victim to the safety of an apartment and provided medical care until another crew arrived. In an attempt to perform ventilation and continue searches, Burlison returned to the stairwell, but his low-air alarm was sounding. Aware that he wouldn’t be able to make the roof, he searched until the 36th floor and then returned to the area of refuge on the 31st floor.
#3: Firefighter Robert Alvarado
District of Columbia Fire & Emergency Medical Services Department, Rescue Squad 3
On March 29, 2014, Firefighter Alvarado and his crew were dispatched to a house fire with reports of numerous people trapped. With fire blowing out the entire front of the house, Alvarado located a narrow path and ran through the fire and up the stairs to the second floor where he located an adult female who was unconscious in a bedroom. Alvarado notified the incident commander of the situation, and other firefighters assisted in the removal of the woman from the house where she was placed in the care of EMS personnel. For his actions, Alvarado received the Bronze Bar for Valor, the department’s highest medal, as well as the Gold Medal of Honor, the highest award that can be given to a member with the District of Columbia government.
