Crime & Safety

Somers Firefighters Honored for Going Above and Beyond

Frank Falcone and Keith Burger were honored as 2012 Heroes of the American Red Cross.

Recently, two Somers firefighters were honored by the American Red Cross for going above and beyond the call in an off-duty rescue last year.

According to a release,  Deputy Chief Frank Falcone and Somers Fire Department President Keith Burger were both off-duty on September 10, 2011 when they were in separate places in the Mansfield area, but both heard an emergency call from the Mansfield Fire Department indicating divers were requested for a call involving a stranded kayaker.

Falcone and Burger, both members of the Somers dive team, responded to the Mansfield Fire Department to assist, despite the fact that they were off duty and did not have their gear. Arriving at the Mansfield Fire Department, both men were surprised to see each other. Falcone had been driving to visit his twin daughters at college, and Burger had been driving through Mansfield Center when they heard the call.

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A Mansfield firefighter transported them to the staging area at scene of the response, where they met the Coventry Fire Chief, who had responded with the department’s dive truck. After a 20-minute hike through brush and swamps, they reached the scene, where a kayak was lodged against a tree half submerged in the river. The kayaker was clinging to the boat but was pinned by the tree and unable to get out of the water. A Mansfield firefighter had reached the diver by straddling the tree but couldn’t free him.

The boater said he had been in the water for more than an hour, and he appeared hypothermic. It was clear that if he could not hold on to the boat, he would slip underwater, still trapped by the tree, and drown. Falcone and Burger worked with the Coventry dive team to assess the situation. Falcone became Dive Command and the team developed a plan involving placement of Burger and another diver in the water, but swift currents prevented that plan from working.

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After multiple attempts, the team was able to free the boater using a rope line deployed to pull his leg from a knot hole in the submerged tree. Both men said they were humbled by receiving the award and said they saw it as doing what comes naturally.


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