Firefighter's heroism earns top honors.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

A firefighter could have a long and busy career and never earn a citation for saving a life.

Eugene Fire Capt. Lance Lighty picked up two lifesaving citations Thursday during the department's awards ceremony.

"As a firefighter, you never want anything to happen to anybody. If it's going to happen, all of us want to be there to try to make a difference," Lighty said.

The 38-year-old firefighter was among 11 who received the department's Life Saving Award for their work in two incidents last fall. The first was a late-night apartment fire in November where a 19-year-old University of Oregon student was rescued from his burning bedroom. The second was the October rescue of a teenage log truck driver who was crushed inside the cab after his loaded truck rolled down an embankment.

Saving a life is a highlight in a firefighter's career because too often it turns out differently, Lighty said. In the 14 1/2 years that he has worked with the Eugene Fire Department, 28 people died in spite of the best efforts of firefighters.

"I've been on a lot of fires where we pulled people out and they did not survive. I can remember pretty much every call that had a rescue or a fatality," Lighty said. "It always goes through your mind. A lot of times, it's stuff beyond anyone's control. All you can do is prepare yourself to do better."

Deputy Fire Chief Randall Groves said it was a challenge to control his emotions during the ceremony as he read aloud a letter from the mother of the UO student rescued Nov. 29. He spent more than three months in a burn center and will undergo rehabilitation soon. He expects to fully recover and return to school, she wrote.

Lighty was among a group of firefighters who pulled him out through his bedroom window as fire raged around them in the two-story wood frame apartment building. It was a complex fire scene, with lots of obstacles and intense heat that posed the risk of scalding steam for rescuers working while firefighters suppressed the flames, Lighty recalled.

"Engine 3's crew did an outstanding job of protecting us (from heat and steam)," he said.

The patient had no heartbeat and was not breathing. Within minutes, Lighty and others had restarted his heart and installed a tube down his throat for a respirator.

In the trucker's rescue, a team of firefighters spent three hours meticulously cutting away wreckage to reach the crushed driver without causing the wreckage to shift and further injure him or a rescuer. The man's body was so compressed that he could take only small, exhausting breaths.

As rescuers neared him, the driver told them he didn't think he could continue breathing much longer.

In extremely tight quarters, Lighty used a reciprocating power saw to cut through the smashed and twisted driver's seat to give him enough breathing room to survive. The driver suffered multiple injuries.

"We used everything in the toolbox to get this guy out. He'll be fine, sounds like," said Lighty, whose father, Don Lighty, is assistant fire chief in Junction City.

While the lifesaving awards were the highlight of Thursday's ceremony, the department also celebrated promotions among its ranks and the support of the community in building two new fire stations.

They noted that the new downtown station received the Notable Design Award from Fire Chief Magazine following a nationwide survey.

After 134 years, the 218-member department this year earned national accreditation - making it one of fewer than 150 departments with that rating nationwide, Fire Chief Tom Tallon told 150 firefighters and family members gathered at the city's Emergency Services Center.

CAPTION(S):

Lance Lighty, Eugene fire captain, helped rescue a UO student in an apartment fire and a log truck driver from wreckage in a truck accident in 2005. Eleven firefighters received the Eugene Fire Department's Life Saving Award Thursday. "You never want anything to happen to anybody. If it's going to happen, all of us want ... to make a difference." - LANCE LIGHTY, EUGENE FIRE CAPTAIN