BUCKHANNON – When a serious structure fire broke out at a Buckhannon home on Feb. 7, three young first responders arrived on scene before the fire engine did.
What they found in those chaotic first minutes — and what they did about it — earned all three recognition at the March 19 Buckhannon City Council meeting.
“If you’ve never seen the first five or 10 minutes of a structure fire, it is very chaotic,” Buckhannon Fire Chief JB Kimble told council members. “There were several people in this house.”
Patrolman First Class Jonathan Warner of the Buckhannon Police Department, West Virginia State Police Trooper Caleb Elmore and Weston Fire Department firefighter Kevin Queen — at the time working as an EMS member — arrived at the scene and immediately began looking for ways to help. Moving around to the rear of the burning home, they found an elderly woman at the back door who was having difficulty walking on her own.
“There was an elderly lady still stuck at the back door,” Kimble said. “She could not move, and these three young men assisted her in getting out of the house.”
After getting the woman to safety, Warner and Elmore continued around the house to check for other occupants while Queen went inside to sweep the upstairs and make sure no one else was trapped.
None of the three was there in the role you might expect.
Warner is a Buckhannon police officer. Elmore is a state trooper. Queen was working that day as an Upshur County EMS employee. Yet all three ran toward a burning building.
“There are two police officers, and Kevin was working as an EMS worker,” Kimble said. “That, to me, is going above and beyond their duties.”
What helped was that all three have training and experience around fires.
Warner is also a Buckhannon volunteer firefighter, while Queen has volunteered for years and recently joined the Weston Fire Department as its newest career staff member. And Elmore grew up in the Buckhannon firehouse — his father, Brian, is a captain with the department.
“I’ve known Caleb his whole entire life,” Kimble said. “His dad is one of our captains at the Buckhannon Fire Department, and he’s been basically growing up in the firehouse.”
For Kimble, a 37-year veteran of the fire service, the scene represented something special.
“When I was a young firefighter, there were police officers in our fire station every day,” Kimble said. “They hung out. We did things together. And then throughout the next few years, things kind of slipped away. There was not the camaraderie among departments.”
But these young responders, Kimble said, are bringing it back.
“These young men — they are hanging out together, they’re doing things on their days off, and all our young men and women in our fire and police and EMS services are out there trying to make a difference,” Kimble said.
Kimble presented all three with the Buckhannon Fire Department’s Above and Beyond Bravery and Action Award. Buckhannon Police Chief Matt Gregory then presented Warner with the police department’s Life Saving Award.
“PFC Warner’s training as a firefighter proved to be an asset in this endeavor,” Gregory read from the citation, noting that Warner assisted fire department members outside the structure after the initial rescue.
“It just really shows the teamwork that is involved when multiple agencies get together and grow up together and foster the camaraderie among first responders,” Kimble said.
