Clackamas Firefighters Earn International Award For Heroism

OREGON CITY, OR — For heroically rescuing a 62-year-old woman from a burning home in Happy Valley last year, four Clackamas Fire District #1 firefighters will receive the 2018 International Association of Fire Chiefs/Motorola Solutions Ben Franklin Award for Valor.

Clackamas fire's Capt. Kyle Olson, Apparatus Operator Andrew Brian, Firefighter Scott Kohler, and Firefighter Matt Towner will receive their shared award at the Fire-Rescue International conference in Dallas, Texas, Aug. 9.

The Award for Valor is bestowed to firefighters as recognition of their "expert training, professional service, and dedication to duty," Clackamas Fire spokesman Brandon Paxton explained, noting the recognition also raises public awareness and support for fire and emergency services.

“It is truly an honor for Clackamas Fire, for these courageous firefighters, and for the communities we serve to be honored with such a prestigious award," Clackamas Fire Chief Fred Charlton said in a statement. "This recognition speaks to the thousands of hours all of our firefighters spend training, the investment we made in tools, equipment and technology, and the full-support of the department.”

Olson, Brian, Kohler, and Towner were part of the Mt. Scott Station 5 team that was dispatched to a house fire in the 9000-block of Top O' Scott St. in Happy Valley around 3:45 a.m. Sept. 6.

When they arrived, the men met two women who'd already escaped the home. But their friend, Dea Hammons, who was visiting from out of town, was still in one of the home's second-story bedrooms, they said.

Fire at the home's front door made entry there impossible, so Kohler and Towner went around back.

Once inside, the pair had to navigate through heat and thick smoke to find the stairs to the second floor. Olson and Brian followed Kohler and Towner into the burning home seconds later, but rapidly deteriorating conditions — namely a collapsing ceiling and enflamed carpet — forced them to back out, leaving Kohler and Towner upstairs on their own.

On the second floor, with the carpet melting under their boots, Kohler and Towner checked each room until they located Hammons. Joining her in the room and closing the door behind them, the firefighters watched as the door began to ignite from the intense heat.

Knowing they wouldn't be able to leave the way they came in, the firefighters made a quick decision to egress via the second-story bedroom window using their "bailout system" — a rappel-like three-quarter harness with a rope and carabiner system for exiting from high level structures.

Former Clackamas Fire spokesman Steve Hoffeditz told Patch shortly after the incident that Kohler and Towner just weeks prior to the fire spent time training the department on how to use the recently-acquired bailout system. The pair, Hoffeditz said, "were the expert trainers."

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Breaking out the bedroom window, Kohler dove head-first into the night, his bailout rope snapping wrought as it connected firmly to the window sill. As the rope tightened, Kohler was whipped upright so he could see Towner moving Hammons to the window.

After helping Hammons climb out and onto the now-hanging Kohler, Towner used his own bailout system to jump and hang from the window — just as fire engulfed the bedroom where they'd all been standing.

After they were forced out of the home, Olson and Brian worked to make sure Kohler and Towner would have an exit.

After moving a ladder to where they expected the firefighters would emerge, Olson and Brian learned through radio communication that Towner and Kohler had found themselves in a different part of the house than where they were expected.

Hearing the firefighters' communication over the radio as it arrived, a second fire truck on-scene moved to the side of the house where Kohler, Towner, and the woman were already hanging just as the room caught fire, spitting flames out the window above them.

The second truck was able to safely bring down the firefighters and Hammons, who was reportedly able to walk to a stretcher, from which she was then loaded onto an ambulance and taken to hospital.

Additional fire trucks joined the fight and helped to gain control of the inferno within 30 minutes, Hoffeditz said. No firefighter injuries were reported, but the homeowners lost their five house cats.

"Every move they made was seconds in front of the fire," Hoffeditz said. "Any longer, they wouldn't have even made it up the stairs."

Top photo, from left to right: Firefighter Matt Towner, Apparatus Operator Andrew Brian, Captain Kyle Olson, and Firefighter Scott Kohler. Image via Clackamas Fire District #1 Lieutenant Ryan Patrick.