Peter Couglin and Heston Anderson Receive Commendation Awards

Lieutenant Peter Coughlin and Firefighter Heston Anderson received Commendation Awards at the Feb. 28 South Orange Board of Trustees meeting.   Captain Daniel Sullivan related the event that led to the award.    

On June 18, 2010 a fifth-floor tenant at 18 Prospect Street reported smoke outside the apartment building.

 South Orange Police evacuated residents, and reported that there was a fire in a fifth-floor laundry room.

Coughlin and Anderson were assigned the task of taking a high-rise pack and a set of irons for forcible entry and locating the fire. 

Coughlin and Anderson entered the building and climbed the stairs to the fifth floor where they hooked up to the stand pipe in the stairwell.  Wearing breathing apparatus, they located the fire and began to extinguish it.

Realizing they needed to enter the apartment next to the laundry room, both to search it and the put out the fire, the two men forced their way into the apartment.  There they found a tenant, who was asleep. Anderson helped the tenant leave the building, while Coughlin continued to put out the fire.

There were no injuries at this fire and minimal fire damage.

“Without the swift actions of Lieutenant Coughlin and Firefighter Anderson a life may have been lost,” said Sullivan.  “Lieutenant Coughlin and Firefighter Andersons actions are consistent with the highest standards of the fire service.  For their actions both Lieutenant Coughlin and Firefighter Anderson will receive a Commendation Award.”