Hall Co. Fire Services honors emergency workers

GAINESVILLE - A number of Hall County firefighters, EMTs and paramedics were honored Friday night at the inaugural Hall County Fire Services Awards Ceremony at First Baptist Church in Gainesville.

County Fire Marshal Scott Cagle said there have been awards presentations in the past, but Chief Jeff Hood wanted to see a more formal recognition. Hood brought the idea for the awards ceremony from a department he served previously, according to Cagle.

Cagle said while all of the awards were significant, there was a personal touch that went along with the lifesaving awards that were distributed.

"Some of the survivors are here," said Cagle. "They'll be able to thank their rescuers, which I think is just a really neat concept for those survivors to be able to walk in when some of them were clinically dead - did not have a heartbeat - so we're excited about that."

Lifesaving Awards were presented to Paramedic Sterling Strickland, Paramedic Daniel Funk, Paramedic Clark Collins, EMT Michael Allen, EMT Daniel Puckett, Paramedic Richard Fugal, Firefighter Colton Stroud and Paramedic Brian Gregory.

As part of the Lifesaving Awards presentation, Chief Hood handed out citations to emergency teams that were part of the calls. Those Unit Citations were awarded to Hall County Fire Station 16 B-shift, Hall County Station 14-C and Rescue 8-C shift, and Gainesville Fire Department - Engine 23-A shift along with Hall County Fire Station 7, Rescue 7-B shift.

Chief's Recognition Awards went to Gabby Roberts, Lt. Dax Lewis, Capt. Christie Grice and Hall County citizens Steve and Renee Bishop.

Honored as EMT of the Year was Chris Boykin; Sgt. John Murray was named Paramedic of the Year; Lt. Teddy Jarrard was honored as Firefighter of the Year.

For the first time ever, Hall County Fire Services awarded a Medal of Valor, an award given to a Fire Services employee who puts his or her own life directly on the line to save another. Lt. Chuck Jarrard received the award for his rescue efforts in a July 22, 2014 training accident that critically injured three Hall County firefighters.