For the first time in more than 20 years, members of the Peoria Fire Department are receiving the Firefighting Medal of Valor from the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s office.
Capt. Nick Hansen and firefighter Tobi Roderick were chosen to receive the honor for their efforts in rescuing an unconscious woman from an overnight house fire on April 17, 2023.
Hansen said he and Roderick were on separate engines responding to the 12:30 a.m. call to the 5000 block of North Stephen Drive.
“We basically arrived at the same time [and] we were told that there was a victim inside, which also probably changed the outcome quite a bit because we were able to be prepared to make entry into the house before we even got there,” Hansen said.
“We were in a mental state of rescue immediately, and then once we got there, we were [facing] extreme heat, zero visibility. Once we go inside the front door, it's all instincts and training. We're on our hands and knees and crawling on our stomachs, looking for a victim and luckily we were able to find her extremely quick.”
Hansen said he still hasn't fully processed the idea of receiving the honor, but it's nice to be recognized for performance in extraordinary circumstances.
“There were many, many hands involved in this rescue,” Hansen said. “Firefighter Roderick and I are honored to be here. We were fortunate enough to be in the position that we were; we got on scene extremely fast and were able to make entry into the house and have an excellent outcome.”
Roderick agreed with Hansen that training and instincts took over and allowed for a successful rescue.
“It was one of those things that afterwards you're like, ‘that just happened,’” he said. “Going from [it] being midnight to within five minutes crawling through a house on fire. And obviously also, it was a team effort.”
Battalion Chief Steve Rada called the actions of Hansen and Roderick “nothing less than heroic.”
“I do think it's very important to recognize the people that go above and beyond,” Rada said. “I'm not saying that anybody else in this room wouldn’t have done it, but they were the ones that actually did it, make no bones about it.
“Words cannot express the amount of risk that they put themselves in. I'll be honest, they're lucky that they got out of there. That fire was very, very large; it had a lot of heat to it. To go in there, to risk their own life, they did not even hesitate to go in the door.”
Peoria Fire Chief Shawn Sollberger said the 92-year-old woman ultimately recovered after a hospital stay. He said the department remains in contact with her son, and she now lives in Chicago.
Sollberger said Hansen and Roderick’s efforts exemplify a commitment to the job shared by the entire department.
“When we think of the type of calls that we go on a daily basis, and the type of training and education that we go through, throughout our career, is to prepare us for the unpredictable,” Sollberger said. “What it takes to be able to perform on these type of calls and these scenes is training. That's the bedrock and the platform that allows firefighters, professional in nature, to have any level of success.”
Hansen and Roderick will receive their medals during the 31st annual Firefighting Medal of Honor Awards Ceremony on May 14 in Springfield.
