To the Rescue(s)
Many heroes — particularly firefighters and other rescue workers — emerged from the terror of Sept. 11. But the men and women of AFSCME who hold more mundane public-service jobs also occasionally do noble deeds and perform exemplary acts.
Paducah, Kentucky
Three people who were asleep in a burning apartment building owe their lives to several members of Local 1586 (Council 62). It all began on Feb. 28 when William Shelby, a city refuse-truck driver, pulled up to an alley behind a small apartment complex just before 6 a.m. His partner, Huey Gary, spotting in an upstairs apartment a light that he quickly realized was a fire, ran back to the truck. "I radioed to my boss," recalls Shelby, "and he called 911."
Meanwhile, other waste collection workers heard the emergency call on their radios and also responded to the fire. Two of the workers — Spencer Cozart and James Ware — ran into the building with Shelby and Gary. They broke down doors to make sure no one was inside, but the fire kept them away from the second floor.
"Since we couldn't get up the stairs, we ran outside and threw rocks at the windows, breaking them and yelling" to anyone who might be inside, recalls Shelby. Stephanie Merriel, Hubert Taylor and a teenage boy were there. All three crawled out through the one unbroken window — which happened to be over a fire escape.
Although they got out uninjured, it was "about 5 to 10 degrees that morning," remembers Shelby. "We offered them our jackets and let them sit in the trucks," where they called relatives with the workers' cell phones.
Certificates of Appreciation, signed by Mayor Bill Paxton, credit the AFSCME group with "tireless enthusiasm, dedication and concern for the citizens of Paducah." Other public works employees who also responded to the scene, and received the city's honors, were Bobby Thacker, Jason Coursey, Mike Orenduff and Shelby's brother, Brian.
Worchester, Massachusetts
Karen Bueno, a campus police officer at Quinsigamond Community College and member of Local 1067 (Council 93), was one of 19 officers recently honored by the city's police department for meritorious or life-saving acts.
Bueno received two citations from the chief of police: for her outstanding service to the department and city, and for "diligent observation" that saved the life of an 89-year-old man suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
As reported by Council 93 staff writer Linda Corcoran, the story unfolded as follows: On a routine campus patrol one freezing night in February 2001, Bueno discovered a man face down and bloody in the middle of the road, trying to drag himself to the sidewalk. "My daughter dropped me off from the movies and I slipped and fell," explained the man, who called himself "Mr. Walsh." Ignoring his own condition, he added urgently, "I need to get home to my wife. She's very sick. She has asthma."
The next day, Walsh's son came to thank Bueno for saving the life of his father, who was suffering from Alzheimer's, and offered this explanation: Another son had put the father to bed and left, but the addled man "got himself dressed again and wandered out. My sister never took him to the movies last night." And their mother had passed away three years earlier.
Bueno still thinks about the elder "Mr. Walsh," who now resides in a nursing home. Meanwhile, she's kept herself busy. In May, she became a certified emergency medical technician.
