Fire Department Awards Its Own

The town's bravest were honored in the 2010 Ridgefield Fire Department Awards Ceremony Monday night at Veterans Park School.

Award categories were merit, educational achievement, exceptional duty, the civilian award and unit citation awards, given to members of a unit that were involved in exceptional circumstances and performed above what was expected of them.

The department itself selects peer recipients to honor who have gone "above and beyond the call of duty." Historically, there was no peer-based awards program until 2003, after which the concept fell by the wayside until it was resurrected this year. The department has made a commitment to hold this high-honor awards ceremony biannually.

The awards committee was made up of members of the RFD management in addition to career and volunteer staff, including Fire Chief Heather Burford, Assistant Chief Kevin Tappe, Volunteer Deputy Chief Timothy Pambianchi, Volunteer Assistant Chief Michael Gabbianelli, Lieutenant Rommie Duckworth and fire fighter Brett Rinehart.

Even before the ceremony began, the pre-ceremony slide show of powerful images from various fire department scenes summed up all the reasons why the department's fire fighters deserve to be honored.

Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Tappe emceed the event, with special speakers First Selectman Rudy Marconi and Jesse Lee Pastor Bill Pfohl.

Award recipients were as follows:

Merit Awards: Volunteer Acting Lieutenant Craig Dribble for his emergency response work and the team of fire fighter Mike Grasso, fire fighter Patrick Holland, fire fighter Christopher Sanders, fire fighter Michael Trenck, fire fighter Nicholas DeAngelo and fire fighter David Dachinger for their involvement in the American Lung Association fundraiser, where they competed in a race up 68 flights of stairs.

Educational Achievement Award: Fire fighter Michael Trenck, who on his own time and at his own expense completed a degree in fire science

Exceptional Duty Award: the Technical Rescue Team of Captain David McDevitt and fire fighter Raymond Nobes

Civilian Award: Thomas and Rebecca Ahrensfeld, for their fundraising activities and donations to the Fire Department

Among the Unit Citations were the Teahouse Lane Technical Rescue Team, Cardiac Arrest Saves, Route 7 Extrication and the Branchville Train Station Extrication.

Members of these teams included: John Drake, Richard Lawlor, David McDevitt, Brian Jones, Rommie Duckworth, Michael Drake, Michael Grasso, Guy Miglinas, Bruce Taylor, Michael Moore, Kenneth Brown, Andrew Loya, Michael Short, Robert Coppola, Nicholas DeAngelo, Timothy Wysoczanski, Brett Rinehart, Timothy Pambianchi, Michael Gabbianelli, Evo Falcinelli and Jerry Benziger.

Among the moving stories of amazing rescues and saves was the emotional presentation by two cardiac arrest victims, Suzanne Seifert and Scott Mason.

In April 2009, Seifert went into cardiac arrest at the Jesse Lee United Methodist Church. When the RFD hit the scene, she was not breathing. The team resuscitated and transported her to Danbury Hospital, where she was stable enough to be treated.

Seifert attributed her life to the department and gave each of them a tight hug as she presented their awards.

As Mason told the story of his cardiac arrest, he started to cry, eliciting an emotional audience response. In December 2009, the FD received the call and gave Mason his life back, he said.

Ending with a slideshow of emotional images of amazing rescues, blazing fires, and the intense faces of Ridgefield's fire fighters, the audience of more than 200 people was silent as the crashing music and powerful imagery enraptured the room.