Governor's Medal 2019 Class, awarded on Oct. 13, 2020

Duane K. Greer, Christopher R. Erb Jr., Patrick A. Ferguson, James J. Fuchs and Joshua A. Roth, St. Louis Fire Department

On Aug. 15, 2019, the St. Louis Fire Department was dispatched to a second floor apartment in Lafayette Square with smoke showing. Upon arrival, neighbors gave no indication anyone was inside the apartment. Captain Erb, Firefighter Ferguson, Firefighter Fuchs and Firefighter Roth all pushed up the stairs through the heat and smoke to conduct the primary search. First, Firefighter Ferguson located a child behind a bedroom door. Captain Erb then radioed that he had found another young victim. Multiple medic units were requested. Eventually, the team located a total of four children under four years old in the smoke-filled rear bedroom, one was in a closet, two were in a children’s play tent. All of the children were rushed from the building; three were in cardiac arrest; one was semi-conscious. CPR was performed on three of the children in the front yard of the apartment building. Because of the narrow streets and the number of fire trucks on the scene, the medic units were at a distance from the scene. With extreme professionalism, under the command of Battalion Chief Duane K. Greer and in accordance with their training, the firefighters performing CPR acted with dispatch to carry the children to the medic units. The children, including 18-month-old twin, were treated at a hospital and within two hours all were breathing on their own and considered stable. The St. Louis Fire Department team performed flawlessly as they saved four young lives, from executing a thorough primary search and locating each young child in a smoke-filled apartment to providing critical life-saving care on the scene.