A Special Thanks To Gary Rutkowski & The St. Albans Messenger For The Photo & Article
Above, award recipients at Saturday evening's St. Albans City Fire Dept. annual awards banquet were, left to right, back row; Deputy Chief Allard Hakey, Service Award winner; Danny St. Francis, winner Citizen's Award; Randy Dean, winner Life Saving and Community Service; Brian Tabor, winner Life Saving Award; Jeff Levesque, winner safety award. Left to Right front row; Josh Cox, winner Service Award; Justin Hayes, winner Firefighter of the Year; Dave Brady, winner Life Saving and Safety Award; Fire Chief Joe Beaudry, winner service award. JASON COVELY photo
City Fire Department holds awards banquet
Citizen, top firefighter presentations made
By Jason Covely Messenger Correspondent
ST. ALBAN CITY After 10 months on the job as St. Albans City Fire Chief, Joe Beaudry, on Saturday evening had the chance to lead an event to honor some of his 13 full-time and 14 volunteer call-force firefighters.
Also during the department's fifth annual awards banquet, Deputy Chief Allard Hakey presented a special Citizen's Award to Danny St. Francis. The award is given each year to a local resident that does his or her part in the face of a dangerous fire call situation.
St. Francis did just that last April at the Welden Theatre building in downtown St. Albans where a fire developed on an upper floor. St. Francis, the building manager, acted quickly with a fire extinguisher to avert a much larger incident.
Occupants of the building, including two children, had to escape onto the roof of the building. The theater was evacuated because of the blaze.
"We are here to honor Danny St. Francis and the St. Albans Fire Department recognizes that if Mr. St. Francis had not taken action the fire would have burned out of control. "Deputy Allard Hakey said of St. Francis.
Firemen gathered in St. Albans City Hall Auditorium for the annual banquet.
Among those honored from the ranks of firefighters was Justin Hayes, who earned top honors as Firefighter of the Year for his service to the community and fellow firefighters in 2007.
Recipients of awards among firefighters were chosen by ballot by their colleagues. Other fire department personnel honored were;
>Fire Chief Beaudry was awarded the Service Award for his leadership in 2007.
> Dave Brady earned two awards for his outstanding service in 2007. Brady was awarded both a Life Saving and Safety Award.
> Josh Cox was awarded a Service Award, and in addition it was announced by Beaudry that Cox has shot up the ladder from volunteer to full-time fire fighter, "Next Saturday is Josh Cox's first shift as a full-time firefighter" Beaudry said.
> Randy Dean was presented with two awards for his valiant efforts, one for Life Saving and the other for Community Service.
> Deputy Chief Allard Hakey was issued a Service Award for all his important efforts in the past year.
> Jeff Levesque earned the Safety Award.
> David Raymond accepted the Community Service Award.
> Lt. Brain Tabor also earned a Life Saving Award.
The event also was Pastor Bill Simmons' first official night as chaplain for the city fire department. Pastor Simmons, of the First Baptist Church in St. Albans, was on hand and said grace before the awards dinner, and closed the evening with a prayer.
Beaudry, who took over the department reigns from former fire chief Gary Palmer, offered thanks to all the award winners and the rest of his firefighters. "I'd like to thank everyone for helping with all the transformations we've achieved together over the past year," Beaudry said.
