By Mara H. Gottfried
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. — For the past nine months, Joe Blank has had to learn how to walk again and relearn the skills he needs to be a St. Paul firefighter.
The day after Blank finished taking the department’s captain’s exam in May, he had to have his leg amputated above the knee. It was about 10 days after he was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of bone cancer, and it was considered his best chance for survival.
On Thursday, Blank was the first firefighter Chief Tim Butler called forward at the promotion ceremony of 11 new St. Paul fire captains. Blank ranked first on the test, Butler said.
“Joe’s not defined by the fact that he has an artificial leg,” Butler said after the ceremony. “He’s defined by the love and care he’s shown to his family, the dedication and determination that he’s used to help himself and other people in the fire service and his raw courage to overcome adversity.”
Blank, 42, has been a St. Paul firefighter for nearly 10 years and worked in fire services elsewhere since 1987.
Since returning to work five weeks after his amputation, he has been working in the department’s training division. Last month, the Fire Instructors and Training Officers Association of Minnesota named Blank its Fire Training Officer of the Year.
Blank said he’s feeling good and has been “adapting to life.” Doctors believe the amputation eradicated his cancer.
Blank’s wife fought for him to get a computerized prosthetic leg, which he said is typically an “uphill battle,” and he was able to get one. Having the specialized leg makes him better able to fulfill the demands of the job, Blank said.
“I’m slowly getting back to what I used to do,” he said. “I had my doubts, but more and more as I’m challenging myself, I’m adapting and overcoming.”
Blank said his goal is to return to full duty on the street, but he doesn’t know when.
“This is uncharted territory,” he said. “There have been firefighters who had below-the-knee amputations that have returned to duty, but I’m not aware of any that have had an above-the-knee amputation.”
Blank said everyone in the fire department — from firefighters to administrators and supervisors to maintenance shop personnel — along with Ramsey County dispatchers did a great thing for him after his surgery. He had an older station wagon with a stick shift, which most people can no longer operate after an above-the-knee amputation. Besides that, he couldn’t fit into the car with the prosthetic leg.
“They passed around the hat and bought me a brand new Ford Fusion that’s an automatic,” Blank said. “Among all the other things I had to worry about, it was a huge burden off your shoulders that I had a way to get to work.”
As Butler introduced the other firefighters who became captains Thursday, he shared their stories.
Here are a few of them:
Jeff Chermak, a firefighter for nine years, has “the most interesting background,” Butler said. While attending the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Chermak spent four summers working as an Alaska fisherman to pay for school.
“It was a good introduction to a danger-filled lifestyle,” Chermak said. He said it helped him prepare for a career in the fire service because “you learned how to think fast on your feet and how to operate in stressful situations.”
Chermak majored in philosophy and has a minor in East Asian studies. He used to speak Chinese, knows a “minimal amount” of Russian and also speaks Spanish.
Chermak, who lives in St. Paul’s Desnoyer Park neighborhood, is an elected representative on his Neighborhood Improvement Association.
Troy Teff’s father was the assistant fire chief in Waukon, Iowa.
“It was pretty inspirational,” he said. “I think since I was probably my son’s age (4), I wanted to be a fireman.”
Teff’s dad is proud of him but couldn’t be at Thursday’s ceremony because he’s recovering from surgery.
Teff has been a St. Paul firefighter for nearly 11 years. He was an Air Force firefighter who spent four years on active duty and six years in the Reserves.
He and Blank won department awards for rescuing two fire victims in 2006, and Teff was also recognized for cave rescue operations in 2004 and for saving an infant from a burning building the same year, Butler said.
Jovan Palmieri had an early start as a rescuer. At 14, he was in an Explorer program and worked with an ambulance crew. He gave a cardiac arrest patient chest compressions in one of his first calls as a teen.
Palmieri joined the St. Paul Fire Department 10 years ago and is also a flight paramedic for North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale. He recently invented a system to help large vehicles, including emergency rigs, safely drive in reverse; a patent is pending.
Palmieri won a service award for the 2004 cave rescue and a unit commendation after he gave CPR to a baby born at 23 weeks in 2008.
The other fire personnel promoted to captain were Shawn Conway, Matt Lacy, Ed Nelson, Luke Ritchie, Art Rodriguez, Bret Rusk and Jason Schlundt.
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