By Elizabethe Holland
Copyright 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Four win top award from fire chiefs’ group; others also are praised.
For the first time in more than six months, Cindy Schuenke donned her uniform blues Sunday and lined up alongside fellow firefighters.
For Schuenke, a firefighter and paramedic with the Community Fire Protection District in north St. Louis County, it was a profound moment in more ways than one. She and three other firefighters lined up side by side to accept gold medals of valor for their efforts March 29 to rescue a woman from a burning home.
The three others are Community firefighter Thomas Yahnke, Normandy Fire Protection District firefighter Jim Ebert and Mid-County Fire Protection District firefighter David Mitchell.
Their efforts put each of them under extreme risk and earned each the highest honor bestowed by the Greater St. Louis Area Fire Chiefs Association.
But for Schuenke, the day held even more significance. The blaze that killed Geneva Rooks, 77, in her home in Vinita Terrace nearly killed Schuenke as well.
The floor of the house gave out beneath Schuenke’s feet, and she fell into the basement. Her hands, feet and other areas of her body were severely burned, but Schuenke made her way to a basement window and escaped.
Since then, she has endured several surgeries — from amputation to reconstruction — for fourth-degree burns, and weeks and weeks in a burn unit.
She has been unable to return to work.
At least three other firefighters were injured in the blaze as well, among them Schuenke’s co-worker Yahnke, who suffered respiratory burns that caused him to be put into a chemical coma for three days.
A few dozen other emergency workers also were honored Sunday at the association’s awards ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Community Center in Florissant. Fifteen firefighters — from the Maryland Heights and Mehlville fire protection districts and the St. Charles Fire Department — received bronze medals of valor for their roles in emergency situations.