by Ari Paul
After Paramedics Jacob Dutton and Joseph B. Fraiman were shot at last July while responding to a routine car accident in Brooklyn, a number of changes were implemented for Emergency Medical Service responders, including giving them access to the same radio frequency as police officers. The incident also sparked whispers that they'd be big winners at the next annual medal ceremony.
The two found themselves June 4 on the steps of City Hall with Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and Mayor Bloomberg, receiving the Fire Department's Tracy Allen-Lee Medal as a part of the department's first consolidated Medal Day for both firefighters and EMS responders.
Recipients Like the Big Stage
Despite an outcry from EMS and fire union leaders over moving the EMS ceremony from a smaller gathering during EMS Week in May, medal-winners from both forces supported the consolidated event.
"To be a part of that's an honor," Mr. Dutton said. "Especially now, this is amazing; we're here at City Hall with the Mayor and everything."
Emergency Medical Technician Shawn Healy agreed. Along with EMT Daniel Rohde, he won the highest honor in EMS, the Christopher J. Prescott Medal, for evacuating residents of a burning building in The Bronx last February without the assistance of firefighters.
"It's nice to see that the firemen are accepting us more and more the longer we're working together," Mr. Healy said. "I think it's a very positive event for EMS and Fire."
Mayor Bloomberg hailed the decision to unite the two forces at a single Medal ceremony.
Praises Productivity
"Firefighters, Paramedics, and EMTs have distinct skills and face different dangers, but you are united in a common mission: to protect the lives of the eight and a quarter million people of New York City," he said in his address. "Even as New York City's population has reached an all-time high, you've brought civilian fire fatalities to the lowest point they've been during any six-year period in our history."
The department's top award, the James Gordon Bennett Medal, went to Fire Lieut. James F. Congema, who when assigned to Ladder Company 41 in March 2007 rescued four unconscious family members from a burning apartment in The Bronx, entering and exiting the building several times.
"Training has always taught us, our books even say, if you find one victim your search isn't complete until finished searching the entire area," he told reporters following the ceremony. "With that thought in mind, I knew that I had to finish the primary search. It was zero visibility; I had my mask on. I was on the floor crawling."
Lieutenant Congema, citing the work the EMS responders did in aiding the victims, exuded modesty as the first person honored at the event.
'Rest of Team Deserves Credit'
"You are part of a team," he said. "It's weird to get singled out like this, because I was working with five other guys that night that deserve as much recognition as I do. For the spotlight to be on me it is a little uncomfortable."
Some of the award-winners were responders to incidents that made headlines in the last year. Members of Ladder Company 4 of Midtown Manhattan won the Firefighter Thomas R. Elsasser Memorial Medal for moving through the physical devastation to rescue injured victims following the steam-team pipe explosion near Grand Central Station last July. The members cited from the company were Firefighters Richard Kane, Kevin Seaman, Stephen Hughes, Daniel Beyrer and Timothy Garrett, and Lieut. Stephen Elliot.
Firefighter Neil Malone of Engine Company 239 in Brooklyn won the Thomas Dougherty Medal for digging through concrete after a construction accident in June 2006, saving the lives of two construction workers trapped beneath the rubble.
Firefighter John Rizzo of Marine Company 1 in March 2007 rescued a man who jumped into the Hudson River fleeing the police. Firefighter Rizzo swam after the man in 38-degree waters and in near-total darkness. He received the Firefighter David J. DeFranco Medal.
Other Firefighters winning medals were Frank DiLeo, Gregory Leinz, Donal Finnegan, Darren McVeety, John Keenan, Christopher Deszcz, David Giambalvo, Michael Pfaff, Brian Copper, Frederick Ill 3rd, Michael Ferrara, Salvatore D'Iorio, Michael Columbia, Vincent Tavella, Timothy Lyons, Stephen McAnulty, Joseph Mayer, Michael Rhatigan and Steven Gillespie.
Other Honorees
The other Fire Lieutenants who won awards were Michael Laurinaitis, Stephen Cristello, Richard Buckheit, Vincent McMahon, John Sullivan, Robert Allen, Mark Gregory, Sean Genovese and Daniel McWilliams.
Fire Captains James Brosi, Gary Stanzoni, Fred Marsilla, Robert Collis and Robert Ginley were all decorated.
For catching an arsonist, Fire Marshal James Mills, a past recipient of the James Gordon Bennett Medal, won the Deputy Commissioner Christine R. Godek Medal.
Paramedic Craig Roeder was awarded the Kirby McElhearn Medal for pulling victims from an overturned car in Queens last December.
The Lieutenant James Curran/New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation Medal went to members of Engine Company 92 in The Bronx for overcoming multiple obstacles responding to a fire in June 2006. The company members honored were Firefighters Mathew Ryan, Philip Falsone, Mark Ward, John Hollingsworth and Michael Magerle, and Lieut. Christopher Reginella.
For outstanding medical care, the Jack Pintchik Medal went to EMS Fellow Lincoln Cox, EMS Lieut. Lloyd Arscott, Paramedic Thomas Monahan, Paramedic Miguel Angel Flores and EMT Andre Gonzalez.
EMTs Omar Quinones and Joseph Jimenez of Station 20, adjacent to Jacobi Hospital in The Bronx, were awarded the Chief James Scullion Medal. As Mayor Bloomberg explained in his address, the two "subdued a man on the dimly lit edge of a rooftop, keeping him from jumping to certain death."
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