We’d like to honor paramedic Brad Welch, 28, for his quick response to a blaze at a fire station that saved a person inside, and the town hall that is attached.
His actions also stopped an attempted murder.
The flames started when two former firefighters who said they were “feuding” with a volunteer firefighter inside have been charged with attempted murder and second-degree arson after admitting during an interrogation that they poured gasoline around the fire station door and lit it. They were arrested after being identified on security footage.
Welch was on-call and had just settled in for the night at the station when he heard a panicked radio call.
He bolted outside, ran across the parking lot when he saw smoke billowing from the fire station, and opened the door to see fire spreading across the back wall.
Without hesitation and with no protective gear, Welch, also a trained firefighter, started one of the engines and extinguished the blaze in 10 minutes. A 17-year-old firefighter trapped inside escaped without harm, and helped him put out the flames.
“I was only doing my job,” he said.