ME Firefighters Save Late Grandfather's Military Flag from Fire

Maine firefighters saved a cherished military flag from a fire that tore through apartment buildings earlier this week.

Crews responded to the massive fire at two apartment buildings Monday, WABI-TV reports. The fire destroyed the structures before firefighters could get the flames under control.

On Wednesday, Jonathan Tenney, an apartment resident, returned to the fire scene to see what was salvageable. One of the items he was searching for belonged to his late grandfather, a veteran and hardware store owner who was well-known in the community.

“The two things I wanted to keep when he passed were his flag and his dog tags,” Tenney said.

And thanks to the Hermon Fire Department, those items were saved.

While battling the fire, Capt. Mike Simmons had spotted the flag through Tenney's apartment. That's when he went to Bangor Assistant Chief Dennis Nadeau.

“I asked his permission to break the rest of the glass out of the window and if I could enter the building and retrieve that flag and stuff, and he gave me permission and went in there with the assistance of (two other firefighters), and we brought the flag down,” Simmons said.

Tenney was grateful for the effort by Simmons and the other firefighters. In June, the American Legion will present the flag back to Tenney after cleaning it, and the Hermon Fire Department is invited to the event.

“They went in and rescued the flag and put it aside for us and that means a lot to me because they understood,” Tenney said.

“I am forever in the debt of firefighters that took that extra time to go and rescue that flag," he added. " That means more to me than I think they’ll ever know.”