ELORA – It could have been any one of the hundreds of firefighters who were down in Colorado for an annual memorial service, but it ended up being a Toronto firefighter from Elora who saved a woman off duty.
Dan Bellamy, a volunteer firefighter with Centre Wellington Fire Rescue of 18 years and full timer with Toronto Fire Services for 11 years, was given the Bernard Bonser award from the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters’ Association (TPFFA) for his off-duty actions in September.
The annual award is given to a union member who in the past year made a rescue or was involved in saving someone’s life in a hazardous or threatening situation while off duty.
Bellamy explained in a phone interview ithat n September as part of his duties on the Toronto Fire Services Honour Guard he was part of a group escorting families of fallen members to Colorado Springs, Colorado for a yearly memorial service.
While out walking to go to lunch, Bellamy heard a car rub off the side of a curb and at first didn’t think much of it until he saw the car hit the curb a little harder.
“Then they cut back over two lanes of traffic off the median, crossed two more lanes of oncoming traffic and then smashed the car through and over a retaining wall,” Bellamy said.
Bellamy recalls not even really thinking but just his training and experience kicking in as he reacted to the situation.
When he got to the car he noticed the woman was in some kind of medical distress and wasn’t breathing.
“I don’t know what it was or whether the breathing was from the trauma of smashing through the wall, but I was able to clear their airway and get them breathing again before the fire and EMS showed up down there,” he said. “They were conscious and speaking by the time we passed them off to the ambulance.”
Bellamy was surprised, and slightly bashful, to learn he had been nominated and had won the award as he considered it essentially luck that he happened to be the one to get to the car first.
“Colorado Springs on that weekend in particular is filled with firefighters, I just happened to be the one in the right position,” he said. “Could have been any one of the other hundreds of firefighters that were in town that weekend.”
Bellamy was given a plaque highlighting this award on Thursday by the fire chief and the association.
The 38 year old has been involved in firefighting for most of his adult life and knew he wanted to do this kind of work for a long time.
“It’s all I ever wanted to do … my mom’s got a preschool picture of me somewhere about wanting to be a firefighter and somehow I ended up here,” Bellamy said.
