By Todd South
The Chattanooga Times Free Press
HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. — Burns still healing on his ear and cheek mark firefighter Joshua Burchard’s push into a Feb. 15 fire as he and three other firefighters tried to save two children caught in an apartment.
On Wednesday, the Hamilton County Commission honored the men with framed certificates of appreciation. Last week, Chattanooga Fire Department Chief Randy Parker presented each of the men with a medal of heroism before the City Council meeting.
Mr. Burchard, a seven-year fire department veteran, said a fire call with reports of trapped children is “not something you hear very often.”
As they rode to the fire on Bonny Oaks Drive, the men planned who would perform which duties. Senior firefighter Nick Sewell, a six-year veteran, manned the hose, clearing a pathway for the others to enter the flames and search for 7-month-old Olivia Bennett and 3-year-old Michael White.
“I went upstairs, almost got to the top, that’s when the fire and the heat got to me,” Mr. Burchard said.
He went back downstairs, was hosed off and checked with the others before they headed back into the burning building.
“I said, ‘Knock it (the fire) down as best you can, we’re going up,’” then they climbed the stairs again.
In the third room they searched, Mr. Burchard found Olivia inside a playpen, picked her up and headed downstairs.
“The last thing I remember was looking down at her after I scooped her up,” he said. “I just told myself not to look anymore. Get to where I needed to go and get the job done.”
Firefighter Rick Meier, a 22-year veteran, described “heavy heat, smoke, zero visibility, strictly going on feel” in the apartment when the crew entered.
He found Michael and handed the boy off to Firefighter Darin Honeycutt, a seven-year veteran, who carried him out of the building.
Paramedics pronounced Olivia dead at the scene, and Michael was pronounced dead at T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital that day.
The children’s deaths make the efforts “bittersweet,” Mr. Meier said.
“Everybody wants the happy outcome ... and, of course, we do, too, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way,” he said.
Mr. Burchard said the night he got home from his shift, he picked up his 4-month-old daughter and “didn’t put her down for a week.” He said he wanted to hold both of his daughters as much as he could.
According to police and fire reports, the children’s mother, Alfredda Bennett, was next door when the fire started. Autopsy results showed the children died from inhalation of smoke and other toxic materials produced in the fire, according to the Hamilton County medical examiner’s office.
The fire still is under investigation.
Copyright 2010 Chattanooga Publishing Company