TULALIP — Local heroes and Red Cross volunteers were to be honored Thursday for acts of courage, selflessness and service to community. The 2016 Red Cross Centennial Heroes Breakfast, at the Tulalip Resort Casino, is a fundraising event to help support the American Red Cross serving Snohomish County.
See the stories about all 10 awards
Fire Rescue: Everett Fire Department Capt. Jim Nagle, firefighters Joel Sellinger and Travis Gamm
On New Year’s Eve 2015, an alarm for a mattress fire came into the Everett Fire Department. Capt. Jim Nagle was first on the scene at the Bluffs apartment fire on West Casino Road.
“It was just a wall of fire that was covering two floors,” Nagle said in a Red Cross interview.
Firefighters called for more help, and learned that children, parents and seniors were trapped inside. One life was lost, the man who lived in the unit where the fire began. Everyone else was rescued.
“There’s a reason why we train a lot to get ladders up quickly,” firefighter Joel Sellinger told the Red Cross.
“Mainly it was people like the police that were there,” firefighter Travis Gamm said. “I know that a couple of children were dropped and police caught them from upper floors, and I saw citizens retrieving ladders and helping to identify where the hydrants were. I mean everyone was pitching in.”
After the fire was out, a Red Cross emergency shelter was set up for more than 100 displaced people, and the community stepped up with generous donations.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
More heroes
Among honored heroes, a boy, 12, whose dad had collapsed
At a Stanwood senior center fire, officers kicked open doors
1/4 mile offshore, a dinghy flips and a 6-year-old is trapped
A student was choking, and his teacher knew what to do
Trio rescued unconscious man in water who had fallen 40 feet
CPR and defibrillator help save collapsed racquetball partner
First responders faced ‘a wall of fire’ on New Year’s Eve
Snohomish couple play key roles on Red Cross disaster team
Deputies, county workers, police reach out on the streets
New Family Services center in Darrington ‘belongs to them’
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