Wareham Firefighters honored for heroic actions at awards ceremony

Pride, family and honor were just a few of the topics brought up during the Wareham Fire Department awards ceremony.

The ceremony held at the Main Street Fire Station on Tuesday, Sept. 24, saw many members of the department come together with friends and family to honor their heroic actions.

"I can tell you it's a very honoring feeling for me to know that I have this kind of staff," said Wareham Fire Chief John Kelley. "They're all professionals, they are the best at what they do and I couldn't be more proud of them."

Members of the department received awards for their many decades spent with the department, their dedication to bringing high quality service during the pandemic and for the life saving actions they have performed during their careers.

The award for life saving actions is known as the Silver Life Saving medal and it is awarded to members of a fire department who were principally involved in saving the life of another person and whose personal actions were directly responsible for the life saving act.

Many Silver Life Saving medals were awarded at the ceremony for different emergencies the department had responded to.

One of these emergencies was in January of 2022 when a construction worker had fallen into a 20 foot construction pit area and was injured while working at the Wareham Water Pollution Control Facility.

The worker who fell had been injured and a total of 21 Wareham Fire Department members responded, performing life saving actions to get the worker out and transported to a local hospital.

The worker who fell was Tom Riker of Stoughton and he presented the Wareham Fire Department members who saved his life with their silver medals for their efforts in saving his life.

"Wareham Fire Department saved my life that day and I have a huge appreciation for the department," said Riker.

One of the firefighters who responded to that emergency was firefighter Matthew Kelley, who spoke about what it meant to him for Riker to present the awards.

"It was really nice to have Tom come back and present those awards," said Matthew Kelley. "Once we send a patient away in an ambulance we don't really ever hear or see from them again so to see someone who has recovered from such a serious injury and is doing so well is really fulfilling."

Chief John Kelley wants people to know what the fire department does for the community.

"There is nothing that stops them," said John Kelley. "They run into burning buildings and put themselves in harms way and they never think twice about it. … Sometimes people see the red fire trucks going all over town, but they don't really understand what some of these calls are that they're encountering."