When Savannah Toddes and James Archer showed up to their usual training night with the Mechanicsburg Fire Department on Aug. 3, they didn’t expect to be pulling an actual person out of an actual fire.
But somehow, as Mechanicsburg Fire Chief Gary Neff put it, “the stars aligned” for multiple emergency personnel to coincidentally be in the area for one of the worst fires in recent memory.
On Tuesday night, in a ceremony at the borough council meeting, Neff presented Toddes and Archer with medals of valor — the highest honor given by the department — as well as issuing service medals and citations to nearly 20 others who were involved in the high-stakes rescue last month.
Presenting the awards alongside Neff was Ronald Troxell, the man they saved.