North Idaho firefighter honored for heroism in off-duty rescue

No one trains to dive into a burning building without any protective clothing or breathing apparatus. But when he saw his wheelchair-bound neighbor trapped inside her smoke-filled house last year, veteran firefighter and EMT John Ward did just that.

He pulled out Valerie Yates seconds before the house was engulfed in flames.

“I call him my commando,” said Yates, 72. “He came in crawling on his belly, because by that time the fire was moving down to the floor. He saw my hand there and he drug me clear out.”

For his “conspicuous gallantry and exceptionally meritorious conduct,” the lieutenant with Kootenai County Fire & Rescue has received the Idaho Law Enforcement, Firefighting and EMS Medal of Honor. Attorney General Lawrence Wasden presented Ward the medal at a ceremony Friday in Boise.

“He looked at the risks and he took action,” said fire district Chief Warren Merritt, who nominated Ward for the honor. “Because he acted quickly, I believe, she’s alive today.”

The dramatic rescue unfolded on Main Street in Rathdrum about 5:30 p.m. April 13, 2015. Ward and his wife had been on an afternoon bicycle ride that Monday, his day off, and had been home about 10 minutes.

“All of a sudden I starting hearing some yelling and screaming. Sounded like they were calling my name,” Ward said. “I looked out my patio door and saw the ugly, brown, chunky smoke and knew immediately what that was.”

His next-door neighbor’s house was on fire. Ward grabbed his portable radio to call it in, threw on some shoes and dashed outside.

“As soon as I got to the front of their house, I saw the fire had already taken out the front windows and door,” he said.

Ward ran around back and found Richard Yates, Valerie’s husband, and their oldest daughter Sharon at the back door yelling into the house for Valerie, who was using a wheelchair as she recovered from a hip fracture.

Valerie Yates said she had told her daughter to get out of the house and she’d follow.

“I turned to wheel my wheelchair and fell out in the kitchen with all the flames around me,” she said. “So I started crawling, but it sort of got the best of me. I did make it out into the laundry room, and everything just sort of went.”

Ward was dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and tennis shoes. He saw the smoke inside was almost down to the floor. “It wasn’t a good situation,” he said.

He reached in and pulled out a dog and two cats that were standing at the back door. But he couldn’t see Valerie. Ward remembers thinking the odds of her surviving inside the smoke-filled room were poor.

And he thought, “This is getting ready to flash, the smoke’s getting ready to turn to flame, and I don’t really want to be there with no protective clothing when that happens.”

The threat of flashover, filling the room with flames, was great, Merritt said. “When that happens, it’s not survivable,” he said.

Just as Ward was ready to push Richard and Sharon back away from the house, he spotted Valerie’s hand about 15 feet inside the doorway.

“I just dove in, grabbed the hand and slid her out onto the floor, and picked her up and carried her out to the ambulance that was just arriving at the time,” he said.

Amazingly, neither one of them was burned or suffered smoke inhalation.

“I did not spend much time in there, let me tell ya,” Ward said. “Probably between 30 and 45 seconds after I pulled her out, that doorway turned into flame.”

That was the first time in his 33-year career he’s responded to a fire without any essential safety equipment.

“When you train for that work, you’re stepping off the truck with all your protective clothing on, your air pack and gloves and all that stuff, so that you can do that job,” he said. “But you never really plan or prepare for the possibility that you may end up doing it off duty and in street clothes.”

The electrical fire, which started in a bedroom, spread fast and destroyed the house. The couple lost several cats and dogs in the blaze.

“And (memorabilia of) 53 years of marriage, up in smoke,” Yates said. “All my family pictures – just too much to put into words.”

But she’s grateful to be alive, thanks to Ward’s heroic act. “John knows how to do his job, and he does it well,” she said. “And he knows how to be a friend.”

Ward said he’s pretty humble and doesn’t seek the recognition but does appreciate the honor.

“It’s a pretty prestigious award that doesn’t get handed out every day,” he said. “I was pretty shocked when I found out I was going to be given that award.”

He already received several local recognitions for his actions, including an American Red Cross Hometown Hero Award.

“We’re awfully proud of him,” Merritt said.