By Jerry Lynott
The Times-Leader
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Not much for publicity, Ed Smith might have to get used to some attention.
The Wilkes-Barre firefighter/EMT is one of three finalists for Liberty Mutual Insurance’s national Firemark Award for community service.
Smith, who’s been with the department since June 2002, declined comment Friday about his efforts to rebuild the fire safety house used to teach school children what to do in the event of a fire.
That left Deputy Fire Chief Alan Klapat to fill in the gaps about Smith’s work ethic, professionalism and generosity.
“He spent hours and hours and months and months doing this project on his own,” Klapat said.
When he’s on duty, Smith is a driver for Medic 3, one of the busiest units in the city.
The mobile house was on its last legs, badly in need of repair from so much use. The department and city tried to secure funding for the work, but were “unsuccessful in all our avenues,” Klapat said. The department was about to put it out of service.
“He came to Chief Delaney and I and said, ‘I’m willing to take this project on,’” Klapat said of Smith.
Major task
As Smith got into the project he realized that there was a lot more involved than anybody knew. He ended up lifting the body off the frame in order to do a complete renovation from floor to ceiling, inside and out. Smith was able to get a donation for the vinyl siding.
The city contributed several thousand dollars. The rest came out of Smith’s pocket.
“He would not tell us what he spent,” Klapat said.
It would have cost the city between $50,000 and $70,000 to replace the house, Klapat said.
The renovations made by Smith will keep the house operational for at least another 10 years, Klapat said.
Smith was reluctant to be nominated for the award and only agreed because it comes with $10,000 for the department.
He and his family would receive a trip to Epcot Center at Walt Disney World in Florida, said Glenn Greenberg, a spokesman for Liberty Mutual in Boston, Massachusetts.
To get to the finals, Smith was selected from the 130 firefighters around the country who received FireMark awards last year from the insurance company’s local offices. Greenberg said Ted Wampole, who works in the Scranton office, nominated Smith. Wampole also serves on the Wilkes-Barre Fire Department Civil Service Commission.
The local awards have been given out since 1986 and the national awards since 2006 for heroism and community service/public education. The overall winners are selected from experts in the fire safety community across the country. The award should be announced in late April or early May, Greenberg said.
A film crew was in the city and shot footage at a fire on North Pennsylvania Avenue last week.
“What we hope to do, we’ll only have one winner in each category, but they’re so remarkable stories we have a wonderful opportunity to share this information socially,” Greenberg said.
The videos will be available on the company’s Facebook page, Twitter handle and Youtube sometime before the winners are announced.
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©2015 The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)