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Olympia honors fire crews after August house fire rescue that saved a life
Summary
The Olympia City Council honored members of the Olympia Fire Department Sept. 9 after Chief Matt Morris described an August residential fire where first-arriving crews entered an active structure without immediate backup to rescue an unconscious occupant; the patient was resuscitated and is recovering, Morris said.
The Olympia City Council on Sept. 9 publicly recognized members of the Olympia Fire Department for a July/August residential fire response in which first-arriving crews entered an actively burning home and rescued an unconscious occupant. Chief Matt Morris described the call and credited crew training and courage for the successful outcome.
Chief Matt Morris, Olympia Fire Department chief, told the council the alarm initially came in as a single-engine residential fire response. When crews arrived they found an active house fire and family members said someone remained inside. “They make an entry into this burning building, into a smoky environment with a hose line, and begin to search for this missing person,” Morris said. He said the first officer on scene requested additional resources but those units would be seven to eight minutes away, leaving the initial crew without a backup team.
Morris described the crew locating the fire behind a doorway, extinguishing it, then finding an unconscious person in a bathroom behind a closed door. He said the officer’s low-air alarm sounded while they were carrying the person out; standard practice would be to exit immediately, but the officer and firefighter continued the rescue because leaving to change air bottles would have likely resulted in the victim’s death. “We have a phrase: risk a lot to save a lot,” Morris said, adding that the truck company arrived just as the officer was nearly out of air and relieved the initial crew.
The patient was transferred from the truck crew to basic life-support (BLS) aid units and then to paramedics; Morris said as a team they “successively resuscitate[d] her to where she's going to recover and go on with her life.” He called the rescue “a once-in-a-career type of an event” and praised the crew's training and preparedness.
Mayor Dante Payne and council members rose to applaud the firefighters. Mayor Pro Tem Nguyen and Councilmembers Green, Cooper and Vanderpool each offered thanks and described the response as an example of courage and rigorous training. Several firefighters, battalion chiefs and officers were named by Morris and invited forward for recognition, including Battalion Chief Russell Herman, Lieutenant Aaron Russ, Lieutenant John Winkelman, and firefighters Austin Jones, Michael Knapp, Aaron Johnson, Ryan Davis, Wade Glenn, Roy Rubio, Hunter Duro and Ben Harder.
Council members urged continued investment in staffing and equipment, with several members saying the rescue illustrated why preparedness and adequate staffing matter for public safety. The council recessed briefly after the recognition for photo and ceremonial time with the crews.
The council did not take formal policy action on the rescue itself; the recognition was ceremonial and the chief used the appearance to highlight the department’s culture, training and community service.
