VFD Honors No shortage of heroes, of every age

Deanna Trushin, 8, was honored Thursday for helping summon rescuers to her home when her grandmother had a heart attack. (JOHN BRANTON/The Columbian)

We think of heroes as big and strong, but Deanna Trushin, 8, a third-grader, earned the respect of the Vancouver Fire Department at an awards ceremony Thursday night.

Early last month, when her grandmother, Lyubov Trushin, suffered a heart attack, Deanna took charge.

She activated her grandmother's emergency alert system as she'd been taught and called 911, translating what her Russian family members were saying into English for dispatchers.

When firefighters arrived, the Sifton Elementary School student met them at the door and led them to her grandmother. Deanna helped find grandmother's medical information and medicines, so paramedics could determine what her medical problem was.

Lyubov Trushin, 58, died, but the girl had done everything she could to save her.

"Today we honor her for being responsible, kind, helpful and composed in a frightening situation," Roxy Barnes, division chief for emergency medical services, told the crowd of about 200 in an Orchards training center.

Deanna was one of several ordinary people who received awards, along with firefighters.

"For the citizens, you don't get paid for what you did. That's heroic," Fire Chief Don Bivins said.

Others who were honored:

-- Randy Reed and Mike Hutton received lifesaving awards for risking their lives and pulling an unconscious woman from a burning car.

-- Another lifesaving award went to Donna Franchino and neighbors Allen Lollar and Robert Brown, for saving the life of Franchino's husband, Dino. He suffered a heart attack in their car and fell across his wife, who was driving. Their use of CPR kept him alive until paramedics arrived.

-- In September, firefighters had a dangerous, wind-whipped 20-acre grass and brush fire near Frenchman's Bar Park on their hands, and it was spreading out of control.

Cory Wells, owner of TLC Towing, and his team pulled free a fire engine that was stuck in sand. They also used a bulldozer to cut through 15-foot blackberry brambles and make a 30-foot fire break that helped control the blaze.

Like Deanna, he received a certificate of appreciation.

-- Firefighter-medic John Stewart and Firefighter Chris McBride were off duty in November when they learned of a serious motorcycle crash near Vancouver Lake. Rushing to the scene, they took charge, controlling bystanders, keeping the rider's airway open and protecting his spine until on-duty crews and a Life Flight helicopter arrived.

-- McBride also was honored for another achievement, inventing, testing and gaining official approval for a rope and hook system that firefighters who are trapped on upper floors can use to climb out a window and lower themselves to the ground. It's light, it works and firefighters wear it on their tool belts, said Marilyn Westlake, the department's public education coordinator.

-- In April, when Firefighter Mark Bennett and others were sent to an early morning, two-alarm house fire on M Street, he heard a woman screaming and pulled her through a window, saving her life.

John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.