4 firefighters honored for rescuing victims of Greensburg apartment fires
Apr. 23—Four local volunteer firefighters have earned recognition for their efforts to rescue two men from recent apartment fires in Greensburg.
Greensburg fire Chief Tom Bell and city Mayor Robb Bell honored the first responders at the April city council meeting.
Tom Bell praised firefighters JP Maroney, of the Greensburg department, and Tony Hunter, from the department in neighboring Southwest Greensburg, for rescuing a man on Feb. 5 from a ninth-floor unit where a fire was sparked by a cigarette, at the Penn Towers apartments on Harrison Avenue.
The pair were the first to make it into the apartment unit in full firefighting gear, including breathing apparatus, after heavy smoke spread into the ninth-floor hallway, the chief said. They climbed the stairs rather than waiting for a key needed to ascend in the elevator.
Hunter and Maroney "made a successful attack and rescued the victim," Tom Bell said. "The victim was pulled to the ninth-floor elevator lobby and was taken to the hospital.
"Due to the firefighters' ability to scale the nine flights of steps and be able to extinguish the fire, their dedication to keep themselves in physical shape to do such a task with 40 to 60 pounds of protective clothing on, the victim is alive and well."
Bell acknowledged the importance of teamwork among area fire departments when they respond together to an emergency.
"It doesn't matter, Southwest or city of Greensburg, we are here to serve and protect," he said.
Greensburg firefighters Christian Lake and Austin Wetzell were recognized for pulling a man from a second-story apartment that caught fire Aug. 8 at the Autumn Brook Apartments on Indiana Avenue, off Luzerne Street.
After a resident of a nearby apartment reported a "chirping" alarm that turned out to be a carbon monoxide detector with low batteries, responding firefighters located the apartment that was on fire when they spotted melted blinds in the window, Tom Bell said.
"Due to the smoke detector in the apartment not being connected to the building alarm system, there was no way for anyone else to know there was a fire in that unit other than the occupant," he said.
Lake and Wetzell "entered the smoke-filled apartment, where they found an unconscious male lying on the floor a short distance from the doorway," Bell said. "They pulled the victim out of the apartment and placed the victim into the care of the ambulance crew on scene."
Unfortunately, medics weren't able to revive the occupant, 40-year-old David M. Bramini,. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Westmoreland County Coroner Timothy Carson.
That fire likely was started with cooking on a stove, Bell has said.
Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff by email at jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .
