Red Cross honors 11 who came to rescue
Published: April 12, 2007
Bill and Tracey Ward say there are two reasons they were able to attend Thursday’s 48th annual Red Cross Hall of Fame ceremony at Center Grove High School:
Vladimir Kryjanovski and Steven Walters.
Flames were starting to shoot through the roof of the Wards’ Lawrence home last June when their paths crossed with the two police officers. Bill, 82, and Tracey, 77, were sound asleep when they met.
Kryjanovski, a Lawrence police officer who had immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union, and Walters, a Lawrence resident and an Indianapolis police officer, had raced to the home from different directions after seeing the flames from a distance.
“We didn’t expect them in our house,” Tracey said Thursday. “They drug us out.”
“We wouldn’t have gotten out without their help,” Bill added.
The grateful couple watched as Kryjanovski, Walters and nine others received plaques for their bravery in 2006 at the ceremony in Johnson County’s White River Township, which was sponsored by insurer Conseco.
The Red Cross has started holding the event at local high schools so students hear firsthand the often emotional tales of courage behind the awards. Juniors and seniors sat in the auditorium where the ceremony was held Thursday, while freshmen and sophomores watched on closed-circuit television.
The 11 recipients included seven police officers, two White River Township firefighters in Johnson County and two civilians, one from Pendleton and the other from Indianapolis’ Near Southside.
Walters and Kryjanovski have stayed in touch with the Wards since the fire just to make sure everything is OK.
“The whole thing worked out well,” said Walters. “They are the sweetest people.”
The Wards weren’t the only thankful audience members:
Jim Ashcraft, 69, a farm equipment salesman, was driving an industrial-size riding mower weighing more than 80 pounds on June 15 when he lost control and crashed into a retention pond alongside his Pendleton yard. He was pinned underneath the water, which was about 7 feet deep.
Neighbor Aaron Holden rushed to the pond, went in and got Ashcraft to dry land.
Due to Holden’s quick action, Ashcraft said, he regained consciousness before he was put on a helicopter and taken to a hospital.
“Words can’t describe how we feel about Aaron,” said Ashcraft’s wife, Jo Ann.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers Jason Rakaska and Steven Donahue and civilian Marshall Jones were inducted as heroes for rescuing Elaine Sweeney, who was trapped in her burning home in the 200 block of South Rural Street on May 15.
The two officers entered the smoke-filled home without breathing equipment or other fire-fighting apparatus, suddenly realizing they were in a firefighter’s role.
“We forgot our job description,” said Rakaska. He said Jones helped them gain quick entry to the burning home by breaking in a side door with a concrete block.
Elaine Sweeney’s son, Lee Sweeney, was rescued from another room in the house by Indianapolis firefighters.
IMPD officers Michael Kermon, Michael Antonelli and James Wailes were honored for risking their own lives for one another as they confronted an armed man in the area of 10th Street and German Church Road on Nov. 21 after a police chase.
Kermon was wounded in a hand by a gunshot from the armed man that also disabled his handgun.
“They all risked their lives to protect each other and the community,” Ann Gregson, a Red Cross spokeswoman, said of the three officers.
The gunman, David Drake, 33, a convicted burglar, died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
An Indianapolis police officer, Larry Wheeler, was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year for helping Antonelli in November 2005, when he was shot in the face by a man during a routine traffic stop. Antonelli lost his right eye in the incident.
White River Township firefighters Michael Shoemaker and Jason Tibbetts were honored Thursday as heroes for rescuing Fern Carter, 76, on March 11, 2006, from her burning home in the Eldorado subdivision.
Carter, who suffered extensive burns, died the next day in a hospital, said the firefighters. The fire was caused by Carter smoking while using oxygen for health reasons, said the firefighters and a family member.
Tibbetts said they had to remove clutter to get to Carter in her bedroom, and Shoemaker said that when they opened a back door to get into the bedroom, the fire grew more intense.
Shoemaker said striving to rescue anyone trapped is not extraordinary among firefighters.
“Any one of us would do the same thing,” he said.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: