SAN FRANCISCO—The San Francisco firefighter William A. Mulkeen will be presented with the Governor’s Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor at the State Capitol, 1303 10th Street, in Sacramento on Thursday, September 13. Governor Jerry Brown, Attorney General Kamala Harris and representatives from the San Francisco Fire Department will be present.
The Medal of Valor is a result of Mulkeen’s effort in a rescue of an elderly couple that was trapped in their burning building of 520 Montgomery Street on Sunday, January 1, 2011.
On January 1, the crew of Truck 2 of the San Francisco Fire Department observed two elderly people waving their arms from a third story window with smoke flowing out of the top. SFFD placed a connecting tie on a 24’ wooden ladder and sent over the alley to the roof of a two story building. With one end resting on the fire building parapet wall, firefighters crawled across the ladder at a 40 degree angle to the roof of the exposure building.
Firefighter Mulkeen crawled across the ladder that was three stores above the pavement to the awaiting couple. By the time of Mulkeen’s arrive; the couple was overcome by smoke. He removed his Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), grabbed the man and then carried him back across the ladder. Mulkeen returned to the window to enter the building again and carried the women to the roof of the exposure building.
By Jessica Claflin
