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It takes a lot to get Mauricio Rodriguez to take any credit for pulling three people to safety during an Englewood fire in January.
Minutes after receiving the 2014 Carter Harrison Award for his heroics at City Hall on Tuesday, the captain and emergency medical technician struggled with the right words to describe his valor, repeatedly giving credit where he felt it was due — his fellow members of Engine Co. 116.
“It’s something I have trouble getting a grasp around because we teach all the time that every individual on the fire scene has a responsibility and nobody is less important than anyone else. Everybody is able to do their job if every member of that team does their job,” said Rodriguez, who has been a firefighter for 28 years.
“It was cold. We were coming back from getting fuel for our rig when we got dispatched to a fire. That was part of the reason we were able to arrive so quickly,” Rodriguez said, reliving the Jan. 18 fire in a two-story building the 6400 block of South Marshfield Avenue, just four blocks from the firehouse.
At the fire scene, Rodriguez heard the faint sounds of someone calling for help.
“We pulled up on the scene like I always do as a company officer tried to find a way we could lead a line [hose] in. I had guys behind me with the line and I happened to hear a muffled cough,” Rodriguez said.
“I actually thought it was another fireman coming from the back so I called out, I said, ‘Are you calling me?’ [I] didn’t hear anything but a muffled cough again. I went back there to investigate and that’s where I saw the two victims,” he said.
He fought flames and choked down smoke in his pursuit before finally locating the two unconscious men and a third semi-conscious man, officials said.
He brought the first man out of the inferno before returning in zero visibility to help bring out the others safely, officials said.
“As I was bringing them out, two members of Squad Five were coming up the back stairs and they helped get the victims out,” he said.
“Everybody who was on the scene that day, every company that was there, there wasn’t a guy from the chief on down that wouldn’t have done the same thing,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said he couldn’t describe what was going through his head, just that he was working on “automatic.”
“It felt good. It felt good but there’s been so many situations where I’ve seen so many different firemen do so many good things,” Rodriguez said. “You don’t really dwell on one individual.”
Rodriguez, a father of three from the Northwest Side, said he hasn’t talked to his children much about the incident and it hasn’t raised him to hero status in his kids’ eyes.
“It’s not something that we dwell on. It’s just something I’ve been doing my whole career and it’s what they’re used to,” he said.
“It’s just dad. I’m dad,” he said.
thanks Dan
