Nine Pinellas Park firefighters were honored last week for saving 14 animals and five people in three separate fires.

PINELLAS PARK – Nine firefighters from the Pinellas Park Fire Department were awarded medals at a City Council meeting for saving the lives of animals and humans in three separate fires.

Lt. Thomas Layfield and firefighters William Short and Reuben Ortiz were honored for searching a burning building and rescuing a man who was in cardiac arrest.

They were three of the firefighters who were called to a fire on March 16. When they arrived, the fire was blazing and they were told that the owner was likely in the house and no one had seen him come out. They began searching in the garage and worked their way through the burning building and found the owner unconscious in the last bedroom they entered.

They broke the bedroom window and lifted him through the window to firefighters who were waiting outside. The man was in cardiac arrest, but firefighters managed to get his pulse back while he was still at the house. The man was taken to Northside Hospital.

Lt. Tim Brooke and firefighters Matt Oyer and Chris Sagan were honored for their actions during a May 11 fire.

When they arrived, they began to fight the fire but a witness told them that an elderly woman was trapped inside. They immediately went inside to search for her. When they got inside, they found two other people who had come back for the woman and the family’s 14 pets Those people were disoriented from smoke and had to be helped out of the burning building.

Firefighters returned to the building to search for the elderly woman. Brooke had been in the home for a medical emergency and remembers the layout of the houseand the woman’s most likely location. He was correct. Firefighters found the woman and got her out of the house.

Firefighters then rescued the family’s pets. The three saved a total of three humans and 14 pets. There were no casualties.

Lt. Chris Connolly and firefighters William Weaver and Derek Twardowski responded to a structure fire in Vendome Village the night of July 1.

Upon arrival they saw black smoke pushing out from the top of the closed garage door with a car parked in the driveway. Twardowski tried the front door, which was locked. Weaver and Twardowski broke down the door to get into the condominium.

While Weaver began battling the blaze, Connolly and Twardowski searched the condo using a thermal imaging camera to see through the thick smoke. They found a woman who was unconscious under an overturned chair. They dragged her outside and were able to get a pulse back before she was taken to the hospital.

Photos courtesy of the Pinellas Park Fire Department.

Pinellas Park Fire | Public Safety | Firefighters | Tampabay News

#PinellasParkFire #PublicSafety #Firefighters #TampabayNews