Sheriff’s Trio Awarded Macomb Township Life Safety Award

Two months ago the heroic actions of three Macomb County Sheriff’s officers saved the lives of a Macomb Township family. Last night, the township recognized those officers with the Macomb Township Life Safety Award.

On Oct. 17, Sgt. Frank Ventimiglio, Deputy Bret Likins and Sgt. David Willis responded to an emergency call on a house fire.

Arriving ahead of the , Likens remembers, “It was chaos at first because there was a child in the home.”

Not knowing where the source of the fire was, or how many family members were trapped in the home, the officers went first to what they saw was an open upstairs window.

“The mother was in a bedroom with an open window,” Willis said. “She handed the child to Likens and I took him to my squad car to perform first aid.”

With the child in safety, Ventimiglio and Likens turned their attention to rescuing the mother. While the upstairs window was only 7-8 feet off the ground, Willis said it was the size of the window that was worrisome.

“It was a pretty small window,” Willis said.

But between the efforts of Ventimiglio and Likens, the rescue was successful, with only “a few scrapes to mom,” Willis added.

During the rescue of the child and mother, the father was able to escape uninjured out a back door.

Though Willis said he would repeat his actions without a second thought, he stressed that this particular fire could have been prevented.

In his dual role as fire investigator, Willis noted that the cause of this fire was the ash of a cigarette that had not been fully extinguished.

And because "there were no smoke detectors in the home ... it was by the grace of God they woke up" at all, Willis added. 

In recognizing the life-saving actions of these officers, Supervisor Mark Grabow said:

“We don’t get an opportunity too many times to send our appreciation and thanks to the members of our public services. Many times people condone the items and say, 'That’s part of their job,' but sometimes it’s nice to be recognized. We really appreciate the work and the effort these gentlemen do each and every day.”