ABOVE & BEYOND HEROES GIVEN VALOR HONORS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A firefighter and a paramedic received Los Angeles County Fire Department's highest honor Monday for heroism for diving into the cold, murky California Aqueduct to pull a woman and four children from a submerged, upside-down truck.

Paramedic Jeff Britton and Firefighter Ron McFadden received the department's Medal of Valor, and unit citations went to three other fire engine crew members, three helicopter crew members and two paramedics who helped in the Feb. 19 rescue beside Highway 138 in Llano.

``I feel like I represent the whole department,'' Britton said before Monday's ceremony in Lancaster. ``So much of what we do goes unnoticed and unrecognized. Not to use a cliche, but I just feel like I was doing my job.''

This was McFadden's second Medal of Valor. Four years ago, he was honored for doing the same thing: diving into the aqueduct a few hundred feet from the 2003 location to pull a 9-year-old girl from a vehicle that had gone off a bridge.

Ironically, five firefighters from McFadden's station - Station 79 in Pearblossom - went into the aqueduct Saturday, again to try to rescue a motorist. This time, it took Sheriff's Department scuba divers to free the man from his submerged car.

The firefighters were honored at a luncheon attended by fire officials and city and county government representatives at the Park Plaza convention center in Lancaster.

Also recognized was a Lancaster Marine, Cpl. Arlen Traster, who was presented by fire officials with a certificate of valor - the department's highest recognition for a civilian - for running into a neighbor's burning home in December 2002.

Traster helped a man to safety from inside the house and got two girls off the roof of the house. A woman died in the fire.

``I was shocked; I couldn't believe it,'' Traster, a correctional officer in California City as well as a Marine reservist, said of the honor.

After rescuing the family from the fire, Traster spent four months with the First Marine Division in Iraq, where he was hit by shrapnel. Traster was sent home after injuring his knee.

Also presented with a certificate of valor was Firefighter Daniel Rodriguez, who ran into a burning Lancaster house and pulled out a man who couldn't walk.

``They truly believe what they did is simply doing their job,'' Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said of the firefighters who were honored.

The Medal of Valor goes to firefighters who distinguish themselves in the face of extreme danger, the chief said. They must exhibit courage above and beyond the call of duty and risk their lives to save another under conditions of extreme personal risk, while exhibiting their best professional judgment.

The aqueduct crash for which most of the firefighters were honored claimed the lives of Ana Morales, 32, of Palmdale and her children: 9-year- old Raul Morales Jr., 5-year-old Sylvia Morales and 13-month-old Oscar Morales.

A cousin, 14-year-old Rosa Lopez of North Hollywood, survived with grave injuries.

There were so many victims pulled from the aqueduct by McFadden and Britton that paramedics recruited bystanders for quick CPR training to assist.

Ana Morales and the four children were all loaded into one of the department's new Firehawk helicopters, a civilian version of the military Black Hawk), making the biggest load ever carried by a department helicopter, for a 165 mph flight to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

The firefighters who received unit citations for the incident were Capt. Steven Terry, Firefighter Todd Schmitz and Firefighter James Lampe of Engine 79B of Pearblossom; Paramedics Don Herold and Mike Jarratt of Squad 92 of Littlerock; and pilot Tony Moreno and Paramedics Rafael Ortiz and Mark Miller of Copter 19.

Monday's luncheon also recognized a Fire Department dispatcher, Thomas Brown, for guiding firefighters in 2001 to a teenager seriously injured while riding a motorcycle off-road near Acton.

The boy had been knocked off his motorcycle by a chain stretched between two posts. The boy had a cell phone, but his throat had been crushed by the chain and he could not communicate his location.

Charles F. Bostwick, [phone]

chuck.bostwick(at)dailynews.com

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3 photos

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(1 -- 2 -- color; 1 -- ran in AV edition only) The Los Angeles Fire Department's Medal of Valor, above left, was awarded Monday to Firefighter Ron McFadden and Paramedic Jeff Britton, above right, who both went into the California Aqueduct last February trying to rescue a family trapped in a car.

(3 -- color) Marine Cpl. Arlen Traster, right, receives a certificate of valor from Los Angeles Fire Department Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman for saving a child from a burning house.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News