TERRE HAUTE — Terre Haute firefighter Michael L. Likens couldn’t see anything inside the smoke-filled, burning structure, but he did hear air escaping from the facemask of a fellow firefighter.
He also heard the downed firefighter, Alan Loudermilk, coughing and gagging for air.
Loudermilk’s facemask had become dislodged and he began sucking in thick, black smoke. He was unable to push a button on his radio that signaled to fellow firefighters he was in trouble.
In that scenario, “You don’t think, you just react,” Likens recalled Tuesday. While he couldn’t see Loudermilk, he heard him, felt around and eventually located him.
Likens said he “grabbed him [Loudermilk] and drug him to safety.”
Loudermilk credited Likens with saving his life, said Jeff Fisher, Terre Haute city fire chief.
On Tuesday, the Exchange Club of Terre Haute recognized Likens, a member of the Terre Haute Fire Department, with its Firefighter of the Year Award during a luncheon at the Holiday Inn.
The award is part of the club’s celebration of Fire Prevention Week.
Likens, who is both a firefighter and EMT, has been a member of the city fire department for seven years. He and his wife, Robin, have two children.
He previously received the John Osterloo Firefighter of the Year award from the Breakfast Optimist Club, and in January, the Terre Haute Fire Department also named him Firefighter of the Year.
The last thing a firefighter wants to hear while responding to a fire is “mayday,” meaning a firefighter is down, Fisher said. But in this case, the downed firefighter couldn’t even signal for help.
“When a firefighter goes down, that’s your brother, that’s your sister,” Fisher said. “Your heart goes up into your throat.”
It seems like everything stops, “but everything can’t stop because we have to continue fighting the fire … and searching for other people” who need to be rescued, he said.
Likens, 36, said it’s an honor and “it’s humbling” to receive the Exchange Club award. “There are a lot of great guys on the fire department,” he said.
The former West Vigo High School athlete said he chose to become a firefighter because “you’ve got to be strong-willed and strong-minded to go in fires. It’s a physical thing that I enjoy.”
When a firefighter enters a structure on fire, “You never know what you’re getting into. You always are leery, but yet you have to be aggressive to get to the fire to put it out,” he said.
He thanked members of the Exchange Club for the honor. “We’ll get on our trucks and go do it again tomorrow when we go to work,” he said.
Mike Ireland, Exchange Club member who presented the award, told the firefighters, “We appreciate what you do, working to protect our lives and our property” — often risking their own lives in the process.
Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.
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