Massachusetts firefighters were recognized for their bravery during a ceremony at Boston's John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.
According to WCVB, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Public Safety Secretary Andrea Cabral presented 22 awards to the honorees, who came from 10 communities in the state. Some of the prestigious awards they distributed included two Norman Knight Awards for Excellence in Community Service, one to the organizers of the Regional Student Awareness of Fire Education (S.A.F.E.) Program in Amherst and one to a firefighter who implemented a senior version of the program in Lunenburg.
A special portion of the ceremony was dedicated to honoring two Boston firefighters who perished fighting a nine-alarm fire in the spring. Lieutenant Edward J. Walsh Jr. and firefighter Michael R. Kennedy were posthumously given Medals of Honor, accepted on their behalf by their families, reported the Boston Globe. Boston Fire Commissioner Joseph E. Finn presented the medals, describing the outstanding courage displayed by the two men.
The Boston Globe noted that a father-son team from Abington, Massachusetts, also received an award for preventing the explosion of a propane tank. Jarrod Driscoll was off-duty when he saw the tank start burning but rushed to action nonetheless. After assessing the situation, he called in his father, Michael, who arrived with backup to diffuse the potentially fatal situation.