Sean C. Morgan
Mike Severns had a great night Saturday at the annual Sweet Home firefighter awards banquet.
Fire Chief Mike Beaver announced that he had been hired to fill a vacant paramedic-firefighter position, but that wasn’t all.
“You have been voted the best of the best,” Eli Harris told Severns as he presented him with the Firefighter of the Year award.
Other award winners included Brad Hartsook, Rookie of the Year; Greg Mahler, Engineer of the Year; Zach Lincoln, Rescue Technician of the Year; Josh Bondesen, Medic of the Year; Ken Weld, Officer of the Year; and Guy Smith, Employee of the Year.
Severns was raised in Sweet Home, he said. His family and friends are all here.
“I intend to raise a family here as well and hopefully retire from Sweet Home Fire,” Severns said. “I really can’t see myself at any other fire department. Sweet Home’s got my heart.”
Severns graduated from Sweet Home High School in 2004.
“I found out about my senior year that I wanted to go the paramedic route,” Severns said. His coaches at Sweet Home High School were affiliated with the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District, including Rob Younger, Randy Whitfield, Dave Barringer and Chris Johnson.
“They were my coaches, and obviously, they had time to go out and do something they love,” Severns said. “And they seemed happy.”
He did a ride-along with Whitfield, he said. From then on, he was hooked.
It was the courtesy calls, helping people, that attracted him, he said.
“It was just the little things, maybe helping a little old lady off the floor,” he said.
He started doing the classes, and he became a volunteer in 2006 when a resident volunteer position opened. Six months later, he was hired as a resident intern. He has been an intern ever since. He also has been working part time for a private ambulance service in Lyons.
The competition for the position was stiff. More than 100 people requested applications, said Fire Chief Mike Beaver. The department received 57 applications back. The department gave 17 a written test and selected 10 finalists to run through an assessment center.
“It’s pretty easy for me to say this was the best 10 we ever tested,” Beaver said, and it included four Sweet Home medics.
“Everybody that tested was well worthy of it,” he said. One of the applicants takes home awards every year.
“I was surprised I got the job,” Severns said. “I was speechless when I got the job.”
The award is just icing on the cake, he said.
This is an award a firefighter hopes for some time in his career, he said.
He is looking forward to working in the department, he said. “This isn’t just a job. I have a passion and enjoy doing it. I want to help people.”
Severns earned his basic EMT certification at Linn-Benton Community College and his paramedic certification at Chemeketa Community College.
Continuing in his coaches’ footsteps, Severns is now coaching, assisting with track and field since he graduated. He also has assisted with junior high football, and last year, he was an assistant coach in high school football.
Beaver presented the department’s first medals of valor Saturday night. Smith received the first for responding to a call last summer in which a woman and her daughter were trapped in the middle of the South Santiam River.
Off duty, Smith was first to arrive, wearing sandals and shorts.
When Beaver arrived on the scene, Smith handed him his wallet and phone and headed into the river, Beaver said. He didn’t wear a personal flotation device. He just went in, and it was above and beyond the call of duty.
The river still runs cold in July, Beaver said, and the woman and her daughter probably had less than five minutes.
“Mom was done,” Beaver said. “She was tired, hypothermic. Guy’s action kept her on her feet.”
“She was telling me she couldn’t feel her legs,” Smith said. “You have a mom holding a baby, you can’t hardly not do it.”
Beaver presented the award to Harris, Chad Calderwood and Chris Barnes for their rescue of Ron and Mary Anne Rettke at the Sweet Home Lanes fire in January.
The firefighters arrived, put up a ground ladder and got the couple off of the small roof where they had escaped from the fire inside their apartment.
They led them to a waiting ambulance, and probably a minute and a half later, the bowstring roof over the lanes collapsed, releasing heat and flames around the building, Beaver said.
Battalion Chief Doug Emmert presented the Keith Gabriel Humanitarian Award posthumously to Jim Bean, whose wife, Hiromi Bean, accepted the award.
Emmert said he met Bean in the early 1980s when Bean was a police officer and Emmert was a medic. Throughout his life, Bean supported the department and community as a city councilor.
Emmert wished he could have received the award last year, he said. Bean attended the banquet last year, just three weeks before he died from a heart attack.
Beaver presented the District Pride and Ownership Award to Greg Mahler, who is a 24-year veteran of the department.
“He honestly has to be one of the busiest men in the city of Sweet Home,” Beaver said. In addition to responding to 260 calls and drills, Mahler serves on the Linn-Benton Fire Investigation Task Force. He is a city councilor. He is secretary-treasurer of the Volunteer Firefighters Association.
“We all could learn a lesson from Greg’s tireless commitment to the fire department and this community,” Beaver said.
Business of the Year went to Georgia Pacific.
For 10 years, GP has been providing boxes for the Sharing Tree, Beaver said. In the past, firefighters would scour the businesses in town looking for boxes.
Smith, who is in charge of fire department training, specially recognized several firefighters for their assistance in training over the past year. They included Ron Carter, with 175 hours of training here and 44 outside the district, along with Wes Strubhar, Jared Richey, George Virtue, Lincoln, Barnes, Alguire, Harris, Josh Bondesen and Jared Huenergardt.
He gave special recognition to dive team members Harris, Carter, Chris Forum, Brian Koenig, Virtue, Richey and Lincoln.
Dave Trask was noted for having the most years on the department during the dinner. He has been with the department for 39 years.
Beaver identified the most active firefighters, including Mahler, with 260 responses to calls or drill; Carter, 215; Trask, 202; Rod Holman, 137; Doug Shank, 127; Richey, 116; and 87, Strubhar.
Beaver also announced the retirements of Dianna Huenergardt and Larry Maynard.
“She did a lot of things when she was around and probably didn’t receive enough credit for it,” Beaver said of Huenergardt. She was especially critical in helping organize department activities.
Maynard was one of 10 men who started the fire service in Crawfordsville in 1977, Beaver said. He is the last of them to retire.
Beaver presented him with his helmet and a plaque.
Beaver presented a certificate of appreciation to the new Women’s Association.
“I think one of their main goals is to bring back the family aspect to our fire department,” Beaver said. “And that’s happened.”
He presented a certificate to Calderwood, an employee of the Oregon Department of Forestry, Sweet Home Unit, for providing special in-house training in wildland firefighting.