On the morning of April 1, 2022, Fenton 911 received a call from an individual who was on the second floor of his home. He had been sleeping and he was woken by his dog barking. He was now reporting his house was on fire and filling with smoke and he couldn’t get out. Fenton’s 911 dispatcher was able to stay on the phone with the caller, to keep him calm and to give him instructions on what to do, while also dispatching fire units to the home.

The first fire engine (Engine 11) was on scene within seven minutes of the 911 call. One crew of two firefighters went to the front door to make entry into the home to extinguish the fire while the other crew of two firefighters removed the victim from the home via portable ladder out the second story window. The trapped victim was removed from the home within nine minutes of the 911 call. The E11 crews also rescued two dogs from the home, one from the second floor via the ladder and another from the first floor.

Cairnduff said, “This resident was extremely lucky for a few reasons. First, he was fortunate that he was woken by his dog. Second, that we had a trained and professional dispatcher that knew what to do and how to talk to the victim. Third, that we had a full crew of six people on our first out apparatus. And lastly that we had a professional fire crew that was well trained and acted quickly and efficiently.”

Unit citation Awards

Incident date – April 1, 2022

• Ed Hadfield, deputy fire chief

• Josh Sturgis, lieutenant with fire department

• Craig Jensen, chief engineer with fire department

• Matt Hadfield, firefighter

• Joe Hoffman, firefighter

• Travis Whitman, firefighter

• Samantha Sturgis, 911 dispatcher