BOC recognizes NCFS Lt Richmond

The Newton County Board of Commissioners recognized the efforts of Fire Services Lt. Mike Richmond during its Tuesday, Aug. 20, meeting.

Richmond was the incident commander during a call for a fire on a property located on County Line Road in February. The resident, William Jorden, was not home at the time and reported that his shop and shed, located on the property, was burned to the ground, with a loss of two classic cars, two tractors and other equipment.

In a letter to the Newton County Board of Commissioners, Jorden noted that fire trucks responded to an address in the adjacent subdivision where the initial 911 call came from. When Richmond saw where the fire was located, he ran through the woods and across a creek before coming up to the house, which was located about 30 feet from the engulfed shop. Richmond then ran the 1/4 -mile long driveway to County Line Road to direct the truck to the location.

"By the time the trucks arrived, I think the shop was gone but they extinguished the fire in the trees and vegetation," Jorden said in his letter. "The burned area was within about six feet of our house.

"I strongly suspected that without Mike's efforts in getting the fire trucks to the scene our house would have also burned to the ground. While Mike may not be a hero in the sense that he rescued people from a burning building, he was, unquestionably, our hero that night."

Lt. Richmond and other members from Station 2 were in attendance at the Tuesday's meeting to receive a special presentation from the board for providing property-saving service to Newton County.

"I just wanted to say thank you to anyone who was involved in this recognition," Richmond said. "Everyone on scene did a phenomenal job including my driver behind me engineer Jimmy Williams, and I just want to thank station 2 crew and everyone in Newton County Fire Rescue."