City honors firefighters, medical teams for life-saving efforts on Feb. 11, 2026

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February 11, 2026, was a day emergency professionals live for and also hope never happen. Firefighters were called to an apartment fire on the south side of Kokomo, and in fighting the fire, they were able to save a life. In fact, they saved two.

This week, those Kokomo firefighters were honored for their heroism, along with the many emergency medical professionals at Community Howard Regional Health, Howard County Dispatch, StatFlight, and Ascension St. Vincent’s Adult and Pediatric Burn Center who helped turn a potential tragedy into a day of celebration.

In a ceremony at Kokomo City Hall, the fire department handed out awards to those involved in the presence of the young man who was rescued, and his dog Rosie. KFD Deputy Chief of Operations Steve Stackhouse gave a recount of the incident.

“While conducting a search of an apartment during an emergency response, firefighters located an occupant who was unconscious and unresponsive,” said Stackhouse. “Recognizing the critical nature of the situation, the firefighters acted swiftly and decisively, working seamlessly alongside fellow crew members.

“The victim was safely removed from the hazardous environment and promptly transferred to awaiting EMS personnel for advanced medical care. The firefighters’ calm demeanor, situational awareness, and dedication to duty were instrumental in ensuring the victim received immediate life-saving intervention. Their actions reflect great credit upon themselves and the highest standards of service provided to the citizens of Kokomo.”

The responding firefighters, dispatchers, medical team from Community Howard Regional Health, the professionals from StatFlight who transported the patient, and the team from the burn center at Ascension Hospital in Indianapolis all were recognized for their life-saving roles.

Ryan Mix, liaison officer from Ascension St. Vincent, was happy to bring his team from Indianapolis to join in the celebration.

“I think this is a great opportunity to highlight the teamwork that happens in this community every single day,” said Mix. “Regardless of the incident, we always rise together to the occasion. It's a privilege and a blessing to help serve you guys in that role.”

Dr. Eric Frantz, Ascension St. Vincent emergency medical director, explained how unfortunately rare it is to celebrate an incident such as this.

“I think it's really important that we take these opportunities to recognize what I would call a victory,” said Frantz. “What we don't talk about is that for every ceremony we get to take part in like this, (many) times we're going to be pulling a lifeless body out of the building, or the air medical crew or the EMS crew is not able to pull that patient through or at the burn center. We don't get to sustain the life-saving efforts.

“That is a burden that every person who is part of those efforts takes home every day. We want to say thank you to all the families who put up with us through all that, the times we get home late, and the times of the training and the extra commitments that we ask out of everybody involved with this entire system. We also want to say thank you to the city and county for the resources that we have in this community to be able to provide public safety.”

Dr. Stephanie Gardner, emergency medicine specialist with Ascension St. Vincent’s Adult and Pediatric Burn Center, echoed Dr. Frantz’s sentiments.

“This is just such a great win, and this is why we do this job,” said Gardner. “It doesn't come along that often that we really get to do what we train to do. Intubate the patient. Get them to the hospital. And then have them walk into our celebratory ceremonies.

“As we get more experienced in our career, we have to fight losing empathy. We have to remember that through all of those days of the humdrum sort, this is the day we're looking for. This is the day that we trained for and that we want to be on point for, and we have to stay ready and diligent for that.”

And as for Sam and Rosie? They happily sat in the front row, watching as each person who had a hand in their survival was honored. And Rosie made sure to greet as many people as she could.