Seven months after a massive pileup shut down miles of Interstate 80, firefighters and rescue workers still haven't forgotten the sights and sounds of crumpled cars and trapped motorists.
"I think we all saw things and did things that we wish we'll never have to see and do again," said Pleasant Gap Fire Chief Gary Royer. Pleasant Gap volunteers had climbed onto the roofs of mangled cars to get at the people still trapped inside. Fires raged behind them as they worked in the bitter cold.
"The fire was six tractor-trailers behind us when we started" rescuing a trapped motorist, Royer said Friday. "It was one tractor-trailer behind us when we finished getting him out."
The 44-vehicle pileup caused by a snow squall Jan. 6 shut the roadway down for more than a day. At the height of the emergency response, 80 agencies were at the scene fighting fires, rescuing the injured and seeking the dead. The wreck killed six and injured 17.
"I think it will always be with us," said Bob Frazier, a deputy chief of the Bellefonte fire companies. "We'll always have that common bond."
On Friday, the bond deepened when seven Centre County volunteer fire and rescue companies received "valor awards" for their efforts during the worst wreck in Centre County history.
After the ceremony, held at the Central District Volunteer Fireman's Association's annual convention, firefighters who accepted the awards on behalf of their companies said receiving the awards came as a surprise.
"I personally take it not only as an award for us," Frazier said. "It's an award for all the work that Centre County firefighters did during the incident."
Tim Knisely, chief for the Bellefonte fire companies, nominated the companies for the valor awards. Before presenting the certificates to the companies, awards committee chairman Lenny Alwine read portions of Knisely's nominations, which detailed each company's contributions to the response effort.
A Bellefonte rescue crew was the first to arrive on the eastern end of the wreck and began removing travelers from the mangled vehicles. While going to the scene, a Bellefonte engine crew came upon a second wreck on the interstate and aided a man pinned under a tractor-trailer there.
Firefighters with Citizen's Hook and Ladder in Milesburg were the first to arrive at the western end of the main wreck. They extricated three people and began fighting the fires that had begun.
Rescue crews with Howard, Pleasant Gap, Alpha and Boalsburg all worked to rescue people trapped in the mangled vehicles. As Royer described it, one rescue took an hour, and the rescued man was taken to the hospital by helicopter.
"There were so many people involved with this," Knisely said. "It's important that they are recognized by their peers. It's important that they are recognized by their communities."
Every day, local firefighters and rescue workers do things deserving of awards, Knisely said. "But in an incident like this, when they go above and beyond, they really deserve recognition."
