Crime & Safety

Trevose Firefighters Awarded Medals of Valor

Firefighters from Trevose and Bristol were awarded by the Bucks County Fire Chiefs and Firefighters Association Monday night for their acts of bravery during two incidents last December.

Trevose Fire Chief Ron Doster received what he calls "the best Christmas gift ever" last December when he found out his sons, Tim and Chris Doster, along with fellow Trevose firefighter Brian Armstrong, survived a successful rescue attempt from a house fire on Orchard Lane in Feasterville.

"I didn't know until later that day that they were the ones that went inside," said Chief Doster. "Tim and Chris are fourth generation firefighters, they were raised right."

For their rescue of a trapped man from the second floor of the burning home, Tim Doster, Chris Doster and Brian Armstrong were awarded the Bucks County Fire Chiefs and Firefighters Association's inaugural Medals of Valor during the group's monthly meeting Monday night at the Trevose Fire Company.

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"It's an honor to receive these," said Armstrong, a member of the Trevose Fire Company since 1997. "We did what any one of us in our profession would have done. When you get into a situation like that, you just go back to your training."

Medals of Valor were also awarded to Captain James Burnett, Lieutenant Eric Ziegelhofer and James Kuzma of the Bristol Consolidated Fire Company and Deputy Fire Chief Brian Russell from America Hose Hook and Ladder for their actions during a fire on Pond Street in Bristol Borough last December.

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In the early morning of December 27, the crew arrived to the house fire on Pond Street to see the first floor heavily engulfed in fire and smoke. Before the hoses could get started, Burnett, Ziegelhofer, Kuzma and Russell entered the house under severe flames and heat and with zero visibility.

They found a man, later identified as John Chislum, unconscious on the kitchen floor, and grabbed him and carried him out and away from the building. Using life-saving techniques, Kuzma and Ziegelhofer revived Chislum and helped get him transported to the hospital. Chislum was taken to Temple University's Burn Center, then Kindred Hospital in Philadelphia, but he unfortunately passed away on March 15 from his injuries.


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