Plant City Fire Department Firefighter of the Year - Captain Stacy Stearns

Captain Stearns has been an employee of Plant City Fire Rescue since November 1994.  He was promoted to the rank of Captain in September, 2005. 

On August 1, 2009 Captain Stearns was the officer in charge of Engine 2 and Rescue 2 covering the north part of Plant City.  This was an ordinary Saturday shift in Plant City till around 7:00 pm when back to back incidents were being handled by Plant City Fire Rescue which included two medical calls and a vehicle accident with injuries.  At 7:30 pm Engine 1 was dispatched into Engine 2’s first alarm district for a “child choking”.   Captain Stearns and his crew were wrapping up from the vehicle accident they were on and informed Dispatch they would take the call in their area for the child choking.  Three minutes later they arrived on scene to find the patient unresponsive in the care of the father.  Captain Stearns requested a County Rescue unit respond because both of Plant City’s rescues were committed to transporting patients to the hospital.  The crew attended to the patient and attempted to dislodge whatever was causing the obstruction; all this is within their scope of basic life support training.  Dispatch informed Captain Stearns that Hillsborough County Fire Rescue was responding a rescue but it was responding from a distance with a long response time.  At this point Captain Stearns made the decision to load the patient on the Engine and respond directly to the hospital which was only a couple of blocks away.  The patient was held and supported by the two firefighters and Captain Stearns drove the fire engine to the hospital.  Patient care was transferred the ER staff.  The attending doctor in the ER stated another two or three minute’s delay and there would have been irreparable
harm, even death.  The patient was a 12 year old with
Down’s Syndrome and survived the incident.

Captain Stearns made a decision that could have gone
wrong in many ways.  In this particular case everything
worked in the best interest of the patient and life
is good.  Captain Stearns laid his job on the
line by making a decision that was in contrast to the rules and regulations of Plant City Fire Rescue.  This exemplifies the selfless character of an officer, a firefighter and a father – all descriptive of Stacy Stearns.