The Michael O. McNamee Award of Valor reflects a larger mission about what it means to be brave in the face of danger, as the award is named after Worcester, MA, Fire Department District Chief (ret.) Mike McNamee, who displayed great courage at the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse Fire in December 1999, when he made the bold decision to stop additional Worcester firefighters from entering the building when there were already six lost inside.
We would like to thank the following individuals for their assistance in selecting this year’s recipients:
· William Goldfeder, deputy chief, Loveland-Symmes, OH, Fire Department
· Mike McNamee, district chief (ret.), Worcester, MA, Fire Department
· Brian Schaeffer, fire chief, Spokane, WA, Fire Department
· John B. Tippett, Jr., director of Fire Service Programs, National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF)
· Josh Waldo, fire chief, Bozeman, MT, Fire Department
1. Bryce Gutierrez
Los Angeles Fire Department
On Jan. 16, 2017, Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) Task Force 33 responded to a structure fire at a bungalow in South Central Los Angeles. Firefighter Bryce Gutierrez, while conducting forcible entry onto the property, heard screams coming from inside. At that moment, the captain in charge confirmed that four children—ages 2, 3, 5 and 7—were still in the house.
Locked security gates blocked the front entrance, so Gutierrez circled the property and found a rear-bedroom window—the only point of entry not yet consumed by flames. He quickly hoisted himself through the window into complete darkness, with thick smoke and zero visibility. Hearing muffled noises in the distance, he called out, but received no response. He then dropped to the ground and, crawling on all fours, began to search for the children.
Amidst the smoke and flames, Gutierrez found each child, one at a time. Each child was unconscious, and as he came across each limp figure, Gutierrez, not knowing whether they were dead or alive, carried them quickly back to the window, passing each body to a waiting firefighter on the other side. He completed these motions until all four children were rescued. All four children survived.
2. Michael J. Conboy
FDNY – Bronx
On Dec. 17, 2017, Rescue 3 responded to a report of a fire with people trapped in a two-story private dwelling. Rescue 3’s Lt. Michael Conboy crawled through the front doorway with heavy black smoke venting out over his head and ascended the interior stairs to begin his search into the front bedroom. He found the tools left behind from Ladder 31, realizing this is where they stopped searching to remove an unconscious woman. (For more on this incident, read the #5 entry.) Searching to his right, Conboy found an 8-year-old child unconscious on the floor under the window. The curtains and drapes had dropped down on top of him and were on fire. Conboy could see that the child's pants were on fire so he placed the child on the bed and patted out the flames before crawling out of the room to the hallway where he handed the boy off to another firefighter.
Conboy returned to the bedroom. Now searching to his left, he found an unconscious 89-year-old male on the floor behind the bed. Conboy dragged the man out of the room into the hallway where he handed the man off to another firefighter to remove him to EMS.
3. Scott Kohler and Matt Towner
Clackamas, OR, Fire District #1
On Sept. 6, 2017, at 3:49 a.m., Clackamas Fire District #1 units were dispatched to a working residential fire in a two-story structure. A person in the front yard told Heavy Rescue 305 Firefighters Scott Kohler and Matt Towner that there was a person still inside the home on the second floor.
Towner and Kohler entered the home and made their way to the second floor. Seconds later, the windows in the living room broke out, causing the fire to engulf the area they just left and the intense heat caused the carpet to melt below them.Kohler opened the first bedroom door and found the victim. He called to Towner, who followed into the room, closing the door behind him. Kohler radioed that they needed a ladder to the Delta side and would be bailing out.
Kohler broke out the window, set the hook from his bailout kit his hook on the window sill and bailed out, coming to rest just below the second-story window. With fire, heat and smoke quickly entering the bedroom, Towner assisted the occupant onto Kohler as he hung from his bailout rope. Towner then bailed out next to Kohler. They held onto the occupant as the engine company placed a ladder to bring her down.
The victim was taken to an awaiting ambulance and transported with burns and smoke inhalation. The patient survived.
4. Douglas Warehime
Baltimore City Fire Department
On March 3, 2017, crews were dispatched to a fire in a two-story frame assisted-living facility with multiple disabled occupants trapped. Truck Co. 12 was the first-arriving unit on scene, under the direction of Acting Lt. Douglas Warehime.
Warehime transmitted a brief initial report and assumed command. Warehime entered the structure to begin a search and encountered and removed an unconscious occupant from the front porch. He reentered the structure and, under heavy fire conditions and without the protection of a hoseline, located and removed a second unconscious subject from the first floor.
Warehime then entered the structure a third time, ascended the stairs to the second floor, and assisted other members with the removal of a third unconscious patient.
5. Lucas A. Niskanen
FDNY – Bronx
Note: The following rescue was performed during the same incident for which Lt. Michael Conboy received the #2 Valor Award.
On Dec. 17, 2017, Ladder 31 arrived to a fire with people trapped in a two-story private dwelling. Without a charged hoseline in place, Firefighter Lucas A. Niskanen ascended the staircase. As Niskanen approached the top of the staircase, the heat was so intense that he was forced down to the ground to conduct his search crawling on his belly.
Niskanen crawled into the bedroom and found an unconscious 48-year-old female. Niskanen dragged the victim passed the fire in the bedroom and hallway toward the stairs. At top of the stairs, Niskanen shielded the victim from fire as he and the Ladder 31 officer carried her down the stairs. The Ladder 31 officer then carried her to EMS, while Niskanen returned to the floor above to continue searching for other victims.
Off-Duty Firefighters Help Victims During Route 91 Music Festival
On Oct. 1, 2017, during the Route 91 Music Festival in Las Vegas, a gunman opened fire on a crowd of concert-goers, murdering 59 and wounding more than 500. Off-duty firefighters Travis Haldeman and Jon O’Brien sprang into action to help.
6. Travis Haldeman
Clark County, NV, Fire Department
When the shooting began, Firefighter Travis Haldeman moved his wife behind a barrier, where the decision was made for her to get home to their children while Haldeman remained on site to help. Haldeman came across many wounded individuals, disoriented and frozen in fear, and even as gunfire continued to ring out, he ushered them to the medical tent. Haldeman came across a man bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound to his leg. Haldeman used his belt as a tourniquet and helped the victim move out of the open area.
When a young woman with a back/spinal injury was carried into the tent, Haldeman directed her care, helped load her into the back of her father’s pickup truck, and then escorted her from the venue all the way to the hospital. The young woman turned out to be the daughter of a police officer and the step-daughter of a firefighter on the first-arriving unit to the shooting.
7. Jon O'Brien
Los Angeles County Fire Department
During the concert, two of off-duty Deputy Fire Chief Jon O’Brien’s friends were shot. O’Brien gathered his wife and friends and provided directions and a plan to take cover. Once he knew his wife and friends were safe and on the way to the hospital, O’Brien stayed to assist the injured, triaging patients, getting vehicles (including two ambulances) to start shuttling victims to area hospitals and directing motorists to available hospitals.
Once on-duty first responders arrived, O’Brien went to the hospital where his wife and friends were. By this time, he became aware that there were other fire department personnel at the hospital who had also suffered injuries. He contacted his supervisor to alert him of what had just happened, prompting quick action from the Los Angeles County Fire Department to start the support process.
8. Matthew Lane and Steve Keller
San Francisco Fire Department
On Sept. 20, 2017, Engine 43 was dispatched for a medical call that eventually got upgraded to a fire call. With people still inside a burning two-story residential building, Firefighters Steve Keller and Matt Lane deployed a 150-foot hoseline to the front door and entered the structure to search. Lane began a right-hand search while Keller waited with the nozzle at the front door for water to protect Lane’s search. Lane opened a bedroom door and saw a woman standing in the corner of the room, but she resisted his instructions to go with him. He picked her up and removed her from the house where she was handed over to medics.
As Lane went back to the house, Keller returned toward the front door as the flames were intensifying and he needed to protect their egress. Lane crawled toward the rear of the house and opened the closed door of the third bedroom and saw an unconscious man against the wall.
Calling for help, Lane dragged the man down the hallway. Other firefighters were then able to help remove the man from the building, and he was turned over to paramedics. Both victims were transported and survived.
9. Michael A. Moran
FDNY – Staten Island
On Feb. 9, 2017, Ladder 80 responded to a structure fire with people trapped. In blizzard-like conditions, Firefighter Michael A. Moran and Firefighter Christopher Curto began an outside perimeter search. The first victim was spotted at an attic window. Heavy smoke was billowing around him as he faded in and out of consciousness. Access to the driveway was blocked, so a portable ladder was finessed down the alley and extended. The victim was being forced out of the window by high heat and heavy smoke. Moran ascended the ladder and reached up to the victim's feet. Moran balanced the victim by his feet over his head as he guided them to the ladder rungs. He carried the victim down the ladder and handed him off to waiting EMS staff.
Moran then heard another victim inside a first-floor window. He dragged a large playhouse against the building and climbed up on top of the plastic structure. After taking the window and letting a blast of charged smoke and heat roll out, Moran pulled himself waist deep into the window and reached in below the window where he felt another victim. Moran pulled the lifeless man out the window and transported the man to EMS.
10. Andrew F. Magenheim
FDNY – Manhattan
On Oct. 21, 2017, Ladder 26 responded to an apartment fire with an occupant trapped on the third floor. Upon reaching the third-floor landing, Ladder 26 faced a heavy smoke condition with several couch cushions burning near the stairwell. Lt. Andrew Magenheim located the fire apartment, which showed extreme clutter conditions.
With Probationary Firefighter Emanuel Garcia trying to hold the fire back using the 2½-gallon extinguisher, Magenheim searched for the victim. Magenheim soon discovered the unconscious, badly burned body of a woman in the far corner of room. With fire rolling across the ceiling, Magenheim transmitted a 10-45 and attempted to shield the woman with his body as he dragged her through the heavily involved living room nearly 30 feet back to his crew.
At this time, a report was received stating that a 9-year-old girl was still trapped in the apartment. Magenheim handed the victim off to Garcia and Firefighter John Cazilas, and returned to search. Magenheim searched the rear bedrooms, closet and bathroom again with negative results. It was later determined that the girl was able to self-evacuate before the fire grew out of control.
