Honoring the efforts of a Mansfield firefighter who did everything he could to save lives.
The deputy fire chief was recognized by the town Monday night for rushing inside a home near his house when it caught fire last month. He ended up hospitalized, but just returned to work.
“We train until we don’t get it wrong and it’s the hours and hours that we beat on our craft that make us who we are,” Kevin Danielson, deputy fire chief for the Mansfield Fire Department, said.
He takes training seriously at the fire department and those skills were tested when he responded to a farm fire last month, as he was returning home from another call.
“Structure fire. 441 Warrenville Road. Got into my chief’s car and went down,” he said.
Danielson said as he pulled up to the home on Warrenville Road, he saw smoke coming from the second floor. That’s when he noticed a man outside and ran up to him asking:
“’Is there anybody in there?’ and he goes, ‘yes there’s two. They’re trapped on the second floor,’” he said.
As Danielson radioed for backup, he rushed into the burning home and went upstairs. He helped one woman get out safely and then grabbed a flashlight while under the smoke to try to find the other woman.
“I made the decision to crawl down that hallway. I grabbed her one arm, I grabbed her other arm and went outside with her and immediately began CPR,” he said.
He was performing CPR on 79-year-old Carol Dauphin until she was taken to the hospital where she later died.
Danielson was also hospitalized for two weeks with smoke inhalation, but recovered and was able get back to work last week.
He was able to get a lot of support from the community and town officials. At town hall, they made sure to recognize his efforts Monday evening. Town leaders gave Danielson recognition before their town council meeting, calling his efforts heroic.
“The deputy chief was able to give every occupant of the house every chance at survival,” Ryan Aylesworth, Mansfield town manager, said.
Danielson said he’s humbled by the honor and has gotten counseling after that night, but his thoughts are with the Dauphins.
“I have empathy for the family for their loss. I hope they can recover from it, and I applied what skills I had, whatever training I had, and I think anybody at that level of training would have done the same thing,” he said.
