Lifesaving firefighters to be honored
Lincolnshire-Riverwoods Fire Protection District Lt. Tom Krueger shrugs off his actions on the night of Dec. 19.
He doesn't think he did anything special.
"It's our job, just like an accountant does taxes," said Krueger, an eight-year veteran of the department who lives in Plainfield. "I just did what anybody else would have done."
Krueger is too modest. He and firefighter Paul Schebel rescued a woman from a burning Vernon Hills townhouse that night in what officials believe was the first "hot save" in the organization's 67-year history.
"This is what we train for every day," Fire Chief Fred Kruger said. "No one knows how they'll react until it occurs. And these guys reacted appropriately. They did everything you'd want them to do."
On Saturday, Krueger and Schebel will receive awards for valor in recognition of their bravery. The eight-man crew working at Lincolnshire's Station 51 the night of the fire will get commendations, too.
The honors are scheduled for the fire protection district board meeting set to begin at 9 a.m. at Station 51, at 115 Schelter Road, Lincolnshire.
The fire occurred about 10:20 p.m. Dec. 19 on the 1200 block of Georgetown Lane in Vernon Hills. Firefighters from several area departments responded to the two-story, four-unit building and found flames shooting out of the windows.
"As we pulled into the complex, you could see the smoke," Schebel said. "You knew we had something."
When residents said one person still was inside, Krueger and Schebel broke down a door and entered the burning, smoke-filled building. After hearing someone coughing, Krueger found a woman and her dog on a second floor landing and carried them to safety.
He ran past Schebel on the way outside.
"Tommy said, 'I got her, I got her, I got her,'" Schebel recalled.
About the same time, Schebel started extinguishing the blaze with a hose. Krueger joined him once the woman was safe, and the fire was out within five minutes.
"We got a lot of water on it pretty quick," Schebel said. "We were in and out of there pretty fast."
The woman was hospitalized after the blaze but survived. No other information was available about her.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Despite the hoopla, Krueger refused to take sole credit for the rescue. The other firefighters who responded to the blaze deserve recognition, too, he insisted.
"It wasn't just me and Paul," Krueger said. "Everybody did a great job."
Like Krueger, Schebel is embarrassed by the attention he's garnered. But he knows what happened Dec. 19 was special.
"It's one of those things you sit back and go 'Wow,'" said Schebel, a Cary resident who joined the department in 2005. "If we had been there three or four minutes later, it would not be the same story."