ANGIE RIEBE STAFF WRITER A car carrying five young people last July in Cook went through a stop sign and crashed into a semi-trailer. The car was pinned; the people were trapped; a fire started. But four of the five occupants of the vehicle would survive because of heroic efforts of emergency responders. A home fire last January in Meadowlands trapped John and Karen Stossel inside. His wife unconscious, John managed to call 911. Karen would sadly die, but John’s life was spared because of the bravery and coordinated efforts of 16 people who arrived at the scene. o St. Louis County Sheriff Ross Litman will be at the County Board meeting in Hibbing Tuesday to present 911 Lifesaver Awards to those who had a hand in doing just that — saving lives — at the Cook car accident and Meadowlands fire. “Not every 911 call has a happy ending,” Litman said, “but these two incidents very clearly show the coordinated efforts, professionalism and heroism displayed by many individuals who refused to give up, even under extremely dangerous conditions. And because of their persistence, lives were saved.” When the 911 call came in regarding the Cook accident, communications staff dispatched first responders, ambulance and firefighters from Cook and firefighters from Orr, who were training nearby at the time. While firefighters worked to battle the blaze, David Rankila, a county Public Works Department employee who was also on the ambulance crew, got a front end loader from the county garage in Linden Grove and moved the semi enough to free the car and its occupants. In Meadowlands, firefighters Larry Simonson and Gust Wells entered the house that was fully engulfed in fire to rescue the people inside. And they did so not once, but twice. CPR was started immediately on the two people and continued all the way to the hospital. o Here are the people to be honored Tuesday: • Cook car fire: David Rankila, St. Louis County Sheriff’s Deputies Grant Toma, Brett Lucas, Andrew Feiro and Adam Danielson; Cook Ambulanc personnel Dr. Bruce Garbisch, Tim Mankowski, Loretta Rankila, David Rankila, Nancy Reing, Chris Cox, Kelly Fogelberg, Eric Kiehm, Taylor Bakk and Roger Esterby; Cook Fire Chief Arnie Johnson and firefighters Brian Gramling, Dan Reing, Will Fischer, Sam Grahn and Shane Johnson; Cook first responders Kaylin Rankila and Ed Tausk; Orr firefighters Franklin Barto and Franklin Barto Jr.; Life Link III Flight nurse Don Romano, flight medic Alan Slatten and pilot Arul Ignatius; Hibbing Ambulance members Shawn Nickila and Tyler Wiegman; State Patrol troopers Jon Froemke, Clay Eberhart and Aaron Nevala; and commercial vehicle inspector Greg Lind; St. Louis County emergency communications specialists Sue Hill, Amy Pullen, Carmen Kimball, Dan Johnson, Jason Running and Don Walters. • Meadownlands home fire: Meadowland firefighters Larry Simonson, Gust Wells, Kenneth Maly, Michael Josephson, Ann Bishop, Chris Bernsdorf, Alfred Anderson, Carl Bergin and Neil Kehoe; Meadowlands ambulance members Dan Anderson, Beth Anderson and Troy Maly; St. Louis County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Cannon; St. Louis County emergency communications specialists Don Walters, Jason Running and Brian Thompson.
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 17:09:46 +0000