Awards

2018 James Gordon Bennett Medal/ NYS HONORARY FIRE CHIEFS ASSOCIATION MEDAL

Lieutenant Michael J. Conboy
Rescue Company 3

December 17, 2017, 2317 hours, Box 22-2596, Bronx
Appointed to the FDNY on February 4, 1985. Previously assigned to Squad 41, Ladder 37 and Engine 79. Uncle,
Battalion Chief William Robb, is retired from Battalion 26 and cousin, Battalion Chief Peter Robb, is assigned
to Battalion 18. Member of the Emerald and Holy Name Societies and the Honor Legion, where he serves as
the Bronx Trustee. Recipient of the Thomas A. Kenny Memorial Medal, Emily Trevor/Mary B Warren Medal,
Columbia Association Medal, one Service Rating A, two Service Rating Bs and eight Unit Citations. Served in
the U.S. Coast Guard. Resides in Montgomery, NY, with his wife, Jeanne. They have three children—Tim, Matt
and Colleen—and two grandchildren—Michael and Quinn.

On Sunday, December 17, 2017, Rescue 3 was special-called to Bronx Box 2596 for a reported structure fire with people trapped. Working this night tour was veteran Officer, Lieutenant Michael (Mickey) Conboy. Rescue 3 arrived on-scene quickly. The fire building was a two-story, flat-roof private dwelling, measuring 20 by 60 feet. Ladder 31 was on-scene already and Lieutenant Conboy heard their Officer transmit a 10-45 over the handle-talkie.

Lieutenant Conboy approached the fire building, observing heavy fire blowing up over the roof from an open three-footsquare light shaft approximately 20 feet back on the exposure #2 side. He reported in to Battalion Chief Lawrence Hyland, Battalion 3, who was in front of the building. The Chief told the Lieutenant to have his members assist with searching the fire building and check exposure #4 for extension. Unable to get to the 2nd floor from the front door, Lieutenant Conboy ordered the inside team to attempt entry via a portable ladder up to the front porch roof and the outside team to check the exposure.

Lieutenant Conboy crawled through the front doorway, which had heavy, black smoke venting out over his head. He crawled past Engine 82 members, who still were waiting for water in their hose-line so they could make a push into the two rooms now fully involved in fire and venting into the first-floor hallway. Lieutenant Conboy met Ladder 31’s extinguisher Firefighter in the hallway at the base of the stairs, where he was attempting to keep the fire back in order to protect his Officer, Lieutenant Jerald Perillo, and forcible entry member, FF Lucas Niskanen, as they were coming down the stairs with an unconscious woman.

Lieutenant Conboy asked Lieutenant Perillo if he had anyone else searching the second floor and was told no. Knowing that the second-due ladder was not yet on-scene, Lieutenant Conboy climbed up the stairs through blistering heat to reach the second-floor hallway. At the top of the stairs, he got on his belly and began his search into the front bedroom. He found Ladder 31’s tools, which indicated that their search stopped there when they removed the victim. Searching to his right, Lieutenant Conboy looked up and saw fire rolling over his head. Crawling along the wall, he found a small child, lying unconscious, face up on the floor under a window. The curtains and drapes had dropped down on the child and were on fire, as were the boy’s pants, so he placed him on a bed away from the window and patted the flames out. He then crawled out of the room with the child and handed him off to another Firefighter in the hallway, instructing him to bring the child to EMS personnel in the street.

With time running out for any other victims, Lieutenant Conboy returned to the bedroom to complete his search. Fire was blowing into the bedroom from the shaft. This time, he searched to his left, where he found a leg between a bed and the front wall. Pushing the bed away from the wall, Lieutenant Conboy found an unconscious adult male lying on the floor. Trying to free the man, the Lieutenant told FF Brian Browne, Rescue 3, to remove a door from an adjoining bedroom and place it over the window to slow the spread of fire blowing into the room from the air/ light shaft, as there still was no hose-line stretched to the second floor. Under the extreme heat of the fire, Lieutenant Conboy mustered all his strength and dragged the man out of the bedroom toward the hallway. When he got the unconscious male to the hallway, he handed the man off to another Firefighter for removal to the street and EMS members.

Facing great personal risk, Lieutenant Michael J. Conboy rescued a man and a young boy. For his valor, he is presented with the James Gordon Bennett Medal and NYS Honorary Fire Chiefs Association Medal.—AP