Training, courage kick in for cop, firefighter who put lives on the line
Published: October 11, 2006
Crawling through a burning building to reach a disoriented 50-year-old man who would have died if not for his heroics, off-duty Chicago Fire Department Lt. Joseph Kish could think of only one thing: “Here we go again.”
Three months before the Jan. 25 fire in the 2800 block of South Princeton, Kish was seriously injured while fighting a fire at the shuttered Brach’s Candy complex in the 500 block of North Cicero. He was hospitalized for three weeks. His thigh was so severely burned he needed skin grafts.
On Tuesday, Kish received the Carter Harrison Award, this year’s highest honor for fire bravery, for putting his own life on the line to save another just days before he was scheduled to return to work.
“I hadn’t even gone back to my first 24-hour platoon,” said Kish, 44. “What I did say on the third floor [of the burning building] is, ‘Here we go again.’”
Kish said he didn’t hesitate to enter the building, even though he had no oxygen, helmet or protective gear.
“I’ve been trained by some of the best guys on this job [who] are chiefs now. . . . They don’t teach you [to walk away]. They teach you to do the job the right way,” he said.
The fire broke out about 1:30 p.m. as Kish was doing volunteer work outside St. Jerome School, where his two sons are students.
When a woman told him there was a fire down the street, he ran to check it out. Flames were shooting out a third-floor window.
Firefighter unscathed
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