The Ray Downey Courage and Valor Award, presented by the Fire Engineering Courage and Valor Foundation, commemorates the life and career achievements of Deputy Chief Ray Downey, chief of rescue operations and 39-year veteran of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY). Meet this year’s nominees for the award, which is presented annually at the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Captain Ronald Gilliam, Belmont (SC) Fire Department. He has been a member of the fire service for 25 years.
Comment: “It is my belief that this is the kind of selfless display that fully describes ‘firemanship.’ You can’t teach this kind of performance in a classroom; you can’t train in this kind of thought process: This kind of display comes only from the true calling of being a firefighter.” Marty Reynolds, supervisor.
Scenario
On arrival at a working residential structure fire on July 25, 2009, Captain Gilliam was notified by the teenage son of the occupants that probably at least one civilian was entrapped. The son had escaped the burning home and called 911. His two crewmembers entered a heavily involved, double-wide mobile home and began a search. With heavy fire coming from the Charlie Delta area of the home, the crew pushed on to hold the fire from reaching the areas in which the occupants were. Gilliam performed a 360° walk-around to reach the Bravo Charlie side window, where he could see victim 1 inside the hallway of the home, He climbed into the window to rescue the victim.
As he traveled down the hallway, Gilliam came upon the victim, who was alive but unresponsive. Gilliam removed his face piece to provide the victim fresh air so that he would be able to respond to Gilliam. After replacing his face piece, Gilliam dragged the victim to the Bravo Charlie area of the home, into the bedroom. During this time, Gilliam had also experienced what was described as possibly a “rollover.” He immediately threw himself over the victim, to shield him from the direct heat and flames.
While traveling down the hallway, Gilliam also came across a female victim in the bathroom; he also dragged her into the bedroom in the Bravo Charlie area of the home.
At this point, Gilliam closed the bedroom door to cut off the fire travel, allowing enough safe haven time to attempt to remove the victims through a window. He transferred the victims to the exterior crews through the window.
MARY JANE DITTMAR is senior associate editor of Fire Engineering and conference manager of FDIC. Before joining the magazine in January 1991, she served as editor of a trade magazine in the health/nutrition market and held various positions in the educational and medical advertising fields. She has a bachelor’s degree in English/journalism and a master’s degree in communication arts.
