Windham officer pulls fire victim to safety, fights off smoke inhalation
May 23—Windham Police Officer Chris Van Hirtum said he went on instinct when local Deputy Fire Chief Stephen Brady yelled that he needed help getting a fire victim out of a smoke-filled, Manor Motel room on April 6, 2021.
The pair saved the man, but Van Hirtum suffered smoke inhalation, as well as a full-blown asthma attack and needed treatment at Parkland Medical Center.
His selfless efforts made career law man Van Hirtum, 42, a clear choice for a New Hampshire Hero Award.
"It's nice to be recognized but if it wasn't me, it would have been one of the patrolmen as well," Van Hirtum said during a telephone interview.
Van Hirtum recalled that he and two police colleagues got to the Rockingham Road motel right after Brady arrived in response to this 10 p.m. fire call.
They found an unresponsive man on the floor between the bed and a dinette table inside Unit 113 and carried him outside, where he was treated by a Salem Fire Department ambulance crew.
"It was a team effort," Brady said at the time. "As we were making our way out, the on-duty crew was arriving and assisted us."
Van Hirtum said the three Windham police officers got there before other firefighters had to help Brady.
"The other two guys I was working with started knocking on doors, I heard Steve saying he needed help so I went in," Van Hirtum said.
"The room was so small. I went in and tried to give him a hand, started pulling on the guy. I immediately got hit with smoke; it was dark, such a small room. I've got bad asthma and then I had to get out of there because I couldn't breathe."
Despite being overcome, Van Hirtum made second charge
Deputy Chief Brady remained in the room on oxygen, and waited until Van Hirtum rallied and made a second charge.
"I went out, took a breath of air, went back in, helped move the guy a few more feet and then again I had to get out of the room," Van Hirtum said.
"By then the fire department had arrived and I went into a full-blown, asthma attack."
After treatment, Van Hirtum was released from the hospital that night.
Van Hirtum has been with the Windham Police Department since 2011 and prior to that was an officer with the Newton and Atkinson police forces.
"I look back. It's been a really good career and but I am ready for retirement. It's getting there," Van Hirtum said.
Previously, Van Hirtum worked with the state Division of Marine Patrol and for a year as a corrections officer at Valley Street Jail.
"I only needed a year of that to determine it wasn't the job for me, I was young," Van Hirtum recalled.
In 2012, Van Hirtum and two other officers were fully cleared of an officer-involved shooting when Grant Hebert, then, 21, drove his car right at the trio.
The officers fired 20 shots and hit Hebert three times, leaving the man with life-threatening injuries.
Then in February 2019 when the power went out in Windham, Van Hirtum was directing traffic at a busy intersection and then he was struck by a car.
"I have been lucky; that one could have been real bad. I had a bad concussion, lots of back pain," Van Hirtum said.
"With all of these, you don't think a lot in real time. You take your training, preparation, just go forward and get the job done."
The New Hampshire Hero Awards honor New Hampshire residents who have risked their lives in the previous year to save or attempt to save the life of another person. The program is sponsored by Citizens Bank and presented by the New Hampshire Union Leader.
The honorees will be recognized at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the State House in Concord.
