For almost three years now, Cindy Schuenke has had a court order demanding that she be reinstated as a firefighter with the Community Fire Protection District in north St. Louis County. The order makes it clear the district is to give the Pacific woman, 52, back pay to Aug. 9, 2009, when the fire district’s board illegally fired her.
For more than a year now, she’s had an order from the Court of Appeals in Missouri’s Eastern District affirming that court order.
The court orders stem from a fire call on March 29, 2006, that changed Schuenke’s life forever. On that day, Schuenke did what firefighters do. She was on her hands and knees on the floor of a home on fire in Vinita Terrace, searching for the 76-year-old inhabitant of the home, Geneva Rooks.
The floor collapsed, sending Schuenke to the basement, where she was trapped under debris. She was badly burned, and shocked by a loose electrical wire. Eventually, she broke free and escaped. Rooks died in the fire. As St. Louis tends to do when its first responders get hurt while protecting the rest of us, the community rallied. It held fundraisers and helped support Schuenke as she began an ordeal that has led to nearly 100 surgeries.