Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee)
Copyright 2007 Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knoxville firefighter Jeff Kindrick was honored this weekend for his actions during the McClung warehouses fire earlier this year.
The Tennessee State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution presented him with its Fire Safety Commendation Medal at a ceremony Saturday.
Kindrick, 43, joined the Knoxville Fire Department in 2003. He’d previously worked as a firefighter in Columbia, S.C., and served as an Army Ranger.
“Jeff doesn’t just talk the talk - he walks the walk,” KFD Capt. Darrell Whitaker said.
Kindrick suffered a cracked vertebra and second- and third-degree burns to his hand and arm when he and two other firefighters, brothers Jeff and Joe Lee, became trapped on the third floor of a burning warehouse Feb. 7.
The Lee brothers escaped by climbing out a window and down a fire hose to the street. Kindrick, blinded by the smoke, didn’t realize they’d gotten out and stayed behind to search for them.
“I don’t want this to sound macho,” he later said, “but it’s the truth. It’s an ethos I’ve lived by since I was in the military. You never leave a brother behind.”
He climbed out the window and down the hose after the heat inside the warehouse, which arson investigators estimate topped 1,000 degrees, became too much to stand. He lost his footing on the way down and fell the remaining 40 feet to the pavement.
Kindrick broke his fall with a parachuting maneuver he’d learned during his military service. He’s now out of the hospital and awaiting a return to duty.