Glens Falls, NY, Firefighters Honored for Saving Colleague's Life

GLENS FALLS – When Micki Guy sustained near-fatal injuries in April, her fellow firefighters rushed to her aid and helped save her life.

For these "extraordinary" efforts, members of the Glens Falls Fire Department received letters of commendation at an emotional Board of Public Safety meeting on Wednesday.

Captain Jeff Hirsch recalled the events of the night when Guy fell from a firetruck while responding to a call for a structure fire on Montcalm Street.

While en route to Montcalm, Hirsch said, there was lots of radio traffic, making it difficult to understand what was going on. When Hirsch reached the site of the reported structure fire, the trucks from Guy’s station hadn’t arrived yet, which Hirsch said was “very unusual.” He tried calling them on the radio but couldn’t establish communication. Eventually, he was able to reach them, only to learn that they weren’t coming.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and when you hear their voices, you know with [their] inflection that things maybe aren’t going right,” Hirsch said.

The captain would later learn that Guy had been injured, and an attempt to provide her with medical care was already underway.

Hirsch directed the firefighters on Montcalm Street to stay there and handle the situation. He hitched a ride with a police officer who brought him to the scene on Broad Street, where Guy had sustained her injuries. Hirsch assisted the crew, providing Guy with lifesaving medical assistance.

“When I got there, I helped them a little, but they really did a lot to sustain her and I’m convinced after seeing what I saw when I got there, and also seeing Micki through her process, if they hadn’t done what they’d done and she didn’t have the care available right when she had it, the outcome would definitely not be the same and definitely not favorable,” Hirsch said at the Board of Public Safety meeting.

Mike Simmes, one of the firefighters helping Guy in those crucial moments, had been with the department for only a couple years. As of the Wednesday board meeting, he had just finished his paramedic training. His instructor, prior to her injury, was Guy.

“She taught him all the things he needed to know to help her in her time of need,” Hirsch said.

The experience was Simmes’ first brush with trauma as a firefighter.

After her colleagues came to her aid, Guy was loaded into an ambulance and rushed to the hospital.

Mayor Diana Palmer said that she met the ambulance at the hospital and waited with Guy’s family until a doctor provided them with an update.

“The doctor said that the crew from Glens Falls did such a phenomenal job and that is why she was in the position to survive,” Palmer said.

According to the letters of commendation, numerous medical experts said that, had Guy’s fellow firefighters not rushed to her aid, her injuries likely would’ve been fatal.

“It was something unique that I hopefully never have to experience again,” said Hirsch. “In the firefighter business, everything we do is predicated on ‘are the other guys coming to help you.’ Everybody will bend Heaven and Earth to help the other firefighter. The guys that stayed at Montcalm, even though they knew that there was a problem with one of our people, they stayed. They professionally handled what had to be done. I couldn’t ask for more. I can’t imagine what they were thinking, trying to stay and have to finish that while knowing what was going on across town. Those are choices that they made that were outstanding.”

Captain Hirsch awarded letters of commendation to his crew before receiving his own letter of commendation from Craig Bascue, the fire department’s new chief.

“This accident not only severely limited your manpower response to the initial incident, but it also added a great deal of stress to a potentially serious situation you already had,” Bascue told Hirsch, reading from the letter. “The leadership you commanded during the entire process was extraordinary… Our city is what it is today because of employees like you.”

Chief Bascue also confirmed that Guy was scheduled to be released from rehab on Friday, June 12.

“She's walking, she's talking,” Bascue told The Post-Star on Tuesday. “She's certainly got a long ways before she can do her daily functions, back to normalcy. But she's tough. She's really tough.”

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