Four area firefighters will receive an international award for helping rescue a family from floodwaters. The Springfield Fire Department says rescue specialist Marc Becker and firefighter Michael Kuss, along with Logan-Rogersville firefighters Grant Peters and Roy Harris will be recognized by the International Association of Water Rescue Professionals at their conference in South Bend, Indiana for a swiftwater rescue incident to which they responded on May 29, 2015. During the incident, the emergency responders helped rescue a family of 5 swept away during a major storm and flooding in the area.
During all of 2015, Becker was involved in 11 water rescue calls and Kuss made 10 water rescues.
The Higgins and Langley Memorial Awards honor civilian rescuer, Earl Higgins, who died in 1980 while saving a child who was swept away in the flood swollen Los Angeles River and firefighter/paramedic Jeffrey Langley of the Los Angeles County Fire Dept., a swiftwater rescue pioneer, who died in a helicopter accident in March of 1993.
