The Salem Fireman of the Year is Justin Burner.
Burner was presented the award at the annual Salem Fire Protection District Ball Saturday night at the Salem Elks. He also received his five-year service pin earlier in the evening.
“The biggest highlight, one of them, would be the chicken farm fire. That was a long night for sure. I would say the other thing is just being with the guys, working with them. There have been some things I’ve been going through in my personal life with my wife having cancer. They have all circled around and helped out with that. True brotherhood, really.”
Burner says he was surprised by the honor, which means a lot to him, because his fellow firefighters selected him. He was first encouraged to join the fire department by his brother, but didn’t have time until he changed jobs. Burner now wishes he had joined earlier.
Other top service pin winners were Chief Jim Cerny for 45 years of service, Assistant Chief Bill Fulton for 31 years, Sam Karrick for 35 years, and Andrew Dice and Sarah Purcell for five years of service.
Jacob Heminover had the most responses, making 274 of the total 341 calls through December first. James Bryant was second with 268 responses, William Fulton third with 266 responses, Andrew Dice fourth with 251 responses, and Dennis Collier 5th with 243 responses.
Of the 369 calls responded to so far this year, 118 were fire calls, 76 were for motor vehicle crashes, two were for hazardous materials, and 176 were for miscellaneous calls.
Department members completed 3,800 hours of training during the year.
