By Dawn Aberg
Contributing Writer
4/3/08
The fire department awarded its first annual Citation of Merit for exemplary performance of duty March 20 to members of the East Milton station, Engine 2. The recipients are Lt. Mitch Sumner, Steve Mattaliano and William Murphy.
The 2007 Citation of Merit recognizes the engine company’s response to an incident last summer that saved a 12-year-old boy’s life.
On July 2, the three firefighters were in Randolph checking out the compatibility of the department’s equipment with the neighboring town’s hydrants when the call came in. The men responded immediately to the Randolph Holiday Inn where they threw a ladder to gain entry to the pool area. An unresponsive boy, Anthony Sanders, had just been pulled from the water.
The firefighters could not detect a heartbeat. Accompanied by Capt. James Hurley of the Randolph fire department, the men applied a defibrillator, used CPR, and were able to re-establish normal heart rhythm. The young visitor from Birmingham, AL, was taken by ambulance to Milton Hospital, and then transferred to Children’s Hospital in Boston where he made a full recovery.
“There’s no question that these men saved the boy’s life,” Fire Chief Malcolm Larson says of the teamwork, emergency medical training and professionalism that led to the 12 year old’s survival.
Randolph Fire Chief Charles Foley, on hand at the ceremony to honor Hurley of his department, seconds the appreciation.
“It was a great chain of events,” the Randolph chief notes.
Larson has inaugurated the annual Citation of Merit to honor fire department members whose outstanding performance brings a positive result to a situation that would have otherwise ended in tragedy. The special recognition goes to an engine company, not individuals. The chief calls creation of the annual honor “long overdue.”
Selectmen Chair Marion McEttrick applauds
the town ethic that recognizes the high quality of
its employees. She says she is continually impressed by the quality of person Milton attracts to work
for the town, adding, “We really do have great
employees.”
As further evidence of this ethic, during the ceremony at the Selectmen meeting, Larson announced two major promotions. A large and happy crowd cheered Brian Doherty’s promotion to lieutenant, and John Grant Jr.’s rise to deputy chief. The promotions were effective Feb. 1.
Both Doherty and Grant are second-generation firefighters. The new deputy chief’s father, John Grant, had himself been Milton fire chief in the 1970s. Grant Jr.’s sister, Maura, is also a member of the department. The former Chief Grant, who died while on active duty in 1979, would be proud of his children, Larson says.
“This is the first time in the 30 years I’ve been here that we’ve done this,” Larson says.
McEttrick approves of the acknowledgment. Even though the board doesn’t vote on the promotions, she says, “it’s important to recognize people.”
Many community members turned out for the citation awards and the promotion announcements. Some actively applauded their own favorites. Front and center in the audience were long-time residents George Thompson—who was recently awarded the French Legion of Honor Medal—and his wife, Anne, their smiling faces fresh from gracing the cover of the town’s new annual report.
“We’re here for Brian,” Anne Thompson beamed, looking over at the new Lt. Doherty.