City of Fort Wayne, Fire Department honor firefighters, citizens with service awards

Mayor Tom Henry and Fort Wayne Fire Department Chief Peter X. Kelly honored firefighters and other local heroes Tuesday night, April 8, during the FWFD Service Awards at the Auditorium of the Public Safety Academy. FWFD presented awards to 31 firefighters for exceptional service either on- or off-duty; 19 medics (including three off-duty FWFD Firefighters); and eight citizens. Some of the recipients received more than one award.

Firefighters honored with Service Awards at the ceremony include: District Chief Larry Fisher, Battalion Chief Brian Meeks, Captain Bruce Bickley, Captain Casey Cassidy, Captain Joel Degitz, Captain Greg Goodwin, Captain Matt Loraine, Captain Mike Miller, Lieutenant Craig Mueller, Phil Bogenschutz, Doug Call, William Colter, Brian Dey, John Gilbert, Jason Green, Earl Hamilton, Steve Koenes, Spencer Lewis, Steve Messerschmidt, Jeff Meyer, Dan Mounsey, Mark Nelson, Donald Niemeyer, Phil Nicolet, Brent Peterson, Ryan Preston, Ty Reed, Keith Roddy, Jeremy Sexton, Bryan Sorgen, and, Wes Wiederkehr. These awards included Medal of Valor (Bickley and Mounsey), Meritorious Service (Green and Koenes), Unit and Individual Commendation (others listed).

Service awards were presented to the following Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians: Mike Anderson (off-duty FWFD Firefighter), Dan Basting, Heather Cagnet, Eric Colvard, Heather Craib, Chad Foos, Tom Griffin, Bryan Heckman (off-duty FWFD Firefighter), Mylissa Hess, Tony Mowery, Phil Nicolet (off-duty FWFD Firefighter), Traci Scanlon, Tony Stimpson, Barry Van Camp, Scott Yoder, Ryan Zehring, and Lisa Zerkle, all from Three Rivers Ambulance Authority/American Medical Response. Captain Curt Chivers and Private Robert Atkinson, New Haven Emergency 45, were also presented awards for medical response. All of these individuals received a Citizen Action Award and were part of a Group Meritorious Award.

Jerry Priest received a Citizen Action Valor Award, for rescuing a girl and a young lady from a dog attack. Alex Asay, Ben Bodie and Don Wallace, Glenbrook Security, received a Group Meritorious Award for their medical response for an individual that suffered a heart attack who has made a full recovery. Lynn Doctor and John Ward received Citizen Action Meritorious Awards for their assistance with translation and direction during a fire at a large apartment complex. Alyssa Ivanson and Ben Short, WANE-TV, received Citizen Action Corporate Meritorious Awards for their educational series “A Day in the Life of a Firefighter”.

The City of Fort Wayne thanked all of these individuals for choosing to put others first.