Posts Tagged Streamwood Firefighter Chris Tierney

Streamwood firefighter earns Red Cross Award

Excerpts from RedCrossStories:

Early in the morning on March 25, 2016, off-duty Streamwood firefighter/ paramedic Chris Tierney, was headed across Elgin on the Jane Addams Tollway during rush hour when he saw that a limousine was suddenly airborne in front of him. It then crashed in the middle of a median in a construction zone.

Without hesitation Chris pulled over, knowing his emergency skills were needed.

“I heard screaming inside the limo from the trapped passengers,” he said. “The car was on fire at that point, and the driver had managed to get out.” Chris yelled to a nearby construction worker to get a fire extinguisher while he ran to his truck for a hammer to break the windows open in hopes of reaching the six passengers trapped inside.

Once Chris successfully broke the limousine windows, he was able to assess the passengers’ injuries. “The first thing I thought was just to get these people out as fast as I could,” he said. Oil and gas quickly accumulated around the scene, surrounding everyone inside.

The passengers were severely injured and at least one woman was unconscious. Disregarding his own safety, Chris pulled the first passenger out of the fiery vehicle and helped the other passengers escape. Running back and forth between the limousine and injured passengers, he tended to an unconscious woman who was hardly breathing, regularly checking for a pulse, and began administering CPR.

Within minutes, ambulances and fire engines arrived on scene. Chris worked alongside Elgin paramedics, grabbing the necessary equipment from the back of ambulances and helping to perform emergency aid on the accident victims.

A member of the firefighter training committee and firefighter of 13 years, Chris noted, “This is what we train for all the time. I don’t know that I was feeling at all – it was just automatic,” he said. “We train for the one percent. I know this was the one percent.”

The Firefighter Award is presented to a professional, volunteer firefighter(s), or medical personnel related to dispatch operations at a fire department who acted above and beyond the call of duty, exhibiting heroism either in response to an emergency situation or through an ongoing commitment to the community.

Follow #RedCrossHeroes on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates about the 2017 Heroes. For more information about the 2017 Heroes Breakfast, click here.

thanks Dan

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Elgin Fire Department news

Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

Elgin firefighters and residents were honored for their quick thinking and efforts to save lives in the past year.

There were several instances last year when firefighters — honored with the department’s highest award, the Phoenix — helped bring back to life patients who were in full cardiorespiratory arrest. While that may be part of firefighters’ jobs, it’s important to recognize positive outcomes, Fire Chief Dave Schmidt said.

Two residents whose lives were saved attended the ceremony and were given keychains marking the date and time of the events.

The fire chief’s award went to a team from Mathers Clinic who helped a woman unexpectedly deliver a baby, as well as Streamwood Firefighter Chris Tierney, who helped in a March accident involving an overturned limo on I-90, when a woman died.

The department also honored several residents. They included:

• Edier Fernandez, a laundromat employee who extinguished a dryer fire.

• Kurt Engle, a retired firefighter who helped a neighbor extinguish a stove top fire.

• Mary Richardson, who called 911 and performed CPR on her boyfriend until paramedics arrived.

• Tyrone Strother guided two boys to safety during a home fire just before Christmas, when firefighters rescued the boys’ two sisters.

• Four-year-old Sebastian Reyes alerted his mother and siblings when he smelled and saw smoke coming out of the basement in May.

• Four members of St. Thomas More Church, including Lieutenant Chris Clausen, performed CPR and used an automated external defibrillator to save the life of a priest who collapsed after Mass in August.

Firefighters were honored for performing CPR on a patient who was stricken while on the roof of a home and for a lengthy extrication of victims after an SUV drove into the rear of a semitrailer on I-90 in August, when Michigan nurse Susan Walthall, who was driving by, also helped.

Firefighters in August revived a man who crashed his bicycle and landed on railroad tracks, severely injuring his neck.

Hoffman Estates Firefighter Evan VonQualen called 911 after seeing smoke come out of a house and helped a resident get outside.

Streamwood Firefighter Eric Casey pulled a man out of a burning car after an accident in December on Route 20.

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