Always a Firefighter Award

From McDaniel Award

Hillsboro Fire & Rescue’s Training Chief Yvain McDaniel was honored this past week by Molalla Rural Fire Protection District #73 for his help with a residential fire. Chief McDaniel lives a few miles outside of Molalla and single-handedly extinguished a residential fire in a neighbor’s home. Last Thursday, Molalla recognized Yvain for his actions and presented him with a plaque in front of the Volunteer Association meeting at the main fire station. In making the presentation, Battalion Chief Lonnie Loyer, who was the incident commander on-scene, stated the following:

“On the evening of June 1st at 5:45 pm, we were toned for a residential fire on the southern end of our district. Upon the arrival of myself as the duty officer, I observed a single story home fully charged with smoke. As I gave my size-up to dispatch and was getting out of the vehicle, I was approached by an individual who stated that the fire was extinguished. This individual introduced himself as Yvain McDaniel. He explained there was still a lot of heat and smoke in the home, but that he had opened a door and window and had started positive pressure to extract the smoke and heat with a common household fan. He then took me to the seat of the fire on the exterior of the home. What I observed was unique and not usually seen when being the first arriving representative from the local fire department."

"Yvain had quickly determined the seat of the fire and removed the siding from the home with just his hands and, maybe, feet, and gained access without any special tools or gear. He then used the garden hose through the wall and fully extinguished the fire. When my first responding engine arrived and we began overhauling and gathering information from the homeowner, I looked around for Yvain to thank him again for his efforts and complete success at single-handedly saving this family’s home from destruction. But, Yvain had quietly slipped off and went back to his home to be with his own family."

"Because of his willingness to investigate, his knowledge to access, his ability to perform, his heart to help someone in need and his humbleness to just quietly slip away, all of us at Mollalla Fire District would like to honor Yvain McDaniel for going above and beyond the call of duty and for acquiring the utmost respect and gratitude from all of us here at the fire station and, certainly, from our community.”

We’re pretty proud of him, too!