Longmeadow VFC Celebrates 40 Years!!
On Saturday,
February 18th, the members of the Long Meadow Volunteer Fire Company
(LMVFC) and many area dignitaries gathered at the Fountain
Head Country Club to honor the
members for their service in 2011 and celebrate 40 years of service to the
Paramount community.
Former Fire
Chief Justin Mayhue gave a presentation on the last four decades and several
proclamations were given by the Maryland General Assembly,
Maryland House of Delegates
and
the United States Senate on the LMVFC achieving 40 years of service.
President Jeffrey Byard presented several lifetime
membership awards to individuals and
the John J. Roche award was presented to Jason Eckstine.
The Roche award is presented to the
member who goes above and beyond in service to the LMVFC
in an administrative capacity.
Auxiliary President Rachel Eckstine presented President Byard with a check for
$3527.27
that the Auxiliary
raised for the LMVFC. The Auxiliary also presented several thank you awards
to its most active members: Janice Sorrell, Diana Mayhue
and Tasha Likens. A special thank
you was given to Claire O’Connell for her countless years
of selfless service in helping the
Auxiliary and the LMVFC.
Fire Chief Jason Eckstine presented many awards to the
operational members of the
organization. The Fire Chief’s award for 2011 went to Sergeant James Nicol for
his assistance
to the Fire
Chief. Beginning this year the Firefighter of the Year award has been renamed
the
Richard R. Baer Memorial
Firefighter of the Year and was received by Bryan Evans for his
outstanding effort in being an extremely active
firefighter with the LMVFC and completing
countless hours of training outside the company level all
while being a student at Towson
(Dean’s List) and holding a full-time job.
The following firefighters received Company Training
Awards for 2011: David Sexton,
Lucinda Eckstine, Jeffrey Byard, Matthew Baer, Kiel Lyons, Gary Martin and Jason
Eckstine.
Responder Awards for
2011 were received by these firefighters: Kiel Lyons, Adam Hopkins,
David Sexton, Ed Gotthardt, Bryan Evans, James Nicol,
Matthew O’Connell, Nick Bonhage,
Gary Martin and Jason Eckstine.
LMVFC Firefighters Terry Martin and Nick Bonhage received
the Medal of Courage for
their
efforts in rescuing a victim from the basement of a house fire on The Terrace on
February
22, 2011. The remainder
of the personnel on this incident received a Unit Citation award for
their efforts in operating on this incident. Chief
Eckstine also presented a Unit Citation award to
several Hagerstown Firefighters for their actions in
removing a physically disabled person from a
burning house on Patrick Road on February 23, 2011.
Several other awards were also presented this evening. A
Life Saving award was given
to
Firefighters Shawn Wieczorek, Michael Mills and Captain Ed Gotthardt for their
actions in merit for his actions on March 18, 2011 for assisting a disoriented
gentleman out of a smoke
filled apartment on Little Elliott Drive and
extinguishing the fire prior to the arrival of any units.
A Certificate of
Merit was also issued to Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy First Class David
Izat for his actions on June 7, 2011 for removing people from a burning
residence on Northern
Avenue prior to the arrival of any fire apparatus.
In 2011, the LMVFC responded to 794 incidents, with 307 of these incidents being
Emergency Medical Service (EMS) First Responder alerts to the Paramount area.
The LMVFC
averaged 8 firefighters per call for fire responses and 5
firefighters per call for EMS responses.
Friday’s were the busiest day of the
year with 125 incidents occurring on these days and October
was the busiest
month of service with 86 incidents. Of the 487 fire responses, 82 of them were
for fires with 47 of them being structure fires. For more information on
statistics for 2011, go to
www.longmeadowfire.com.
assisting a choking infant on January 12, 2011. Sergeant Dave Myers received a
Certificate of