(VIDEO) At least 126 firefighters and other Charlotte Fire Department were honored Tuesday for “going to extraordinary lengths to protect the citizens of Charlotte -- and beyond,” CFD officials said.
The CFD's annual awards and medals ceremony was at the CFD Training Academy.
In the past year, CFD responded to more than 110,700 incidents with an average response time of 4 minutes, 34 seconds. Many of those calls led to firefighters taking life-saving actions including personnel who responded to the 5-alarm recycling company fire, two employees who were bone-marrow donors, firefighters who used the department's CPR protocol to bring people from unresponsive to having a pulse and breathing again and more.
In June, two companies responded to a call for a vehicle that fell on a person. The victim was seriously hurt and pinned under the vehicle. Within three minutes, the companies used cribbing and lifting techniques to lift the vehicle off the person whose condition immediately deteriorated. Firefighters started CPR, successfully resuscitated him and he is now back at home.
Companies dispatched to an apartment fire on Fernwood Drive April 15 found heavy fire when they arrived. A resident was hanging out of a second-story window. Firefighters used a ladder to rescue the person then fought the fire while searching the building for other occupants.