Crime & Safety
Pulitzer Prize Winning Photo of University City Fire Chief Still Heart-Clenching
The photo of Chief Adam Long is from a 1988 fire, which resulted in a toddler fatality.
It has been 24 years since University City Fire Chief Adam Long was captured pulling a young girl from a burning fire, and the photo still captivates viewers.
Long is a former St. Louis firefighter and was the subject of a December 30, 1988 Pulitizer Prize winning photograph freelance photographer Ron Olshwanger shot.
Earlier in the year, Missouri News took a look at the photo and an old St. Louis Post Dispatch article about the photo circa 2008.
Long became the University City fire chief in January.
The 2-year-old girl, Patricia Pettus, died at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
The photo, which ran in the Post-Dispatch the day after the fire, won the Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography in 1989.
It was a heroic deed. If in the same situation with the same training, how would you react to being thrown in the limelight for trying to do your job?
Years later Long mentioned emotions he felt about the situation. How does one deal with grief while in the limelight as the center of an award?
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