Three years ago, dozens of emergency workers were called to 555 Teeple Terrace. The condo building under construction collapsed while concrete was being poured, trapping workers inside, and killing workers Henry Harder and John Martens.
On Monday, Ontario's Lieutenant Governor presented 35 London firefighters and three police officers with the Ontario Medal for Police and Firefighter Bravery for their work that day — work which led to four people being saved.
Among those honoured were Capt. Derrick Martin, and firefighter Adam Froats. They spoke to London Morning host Andrew Brown about what happened that day, and how they're doing years after the collapse.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Andrew Brown: How are you feeling about being recognized for your bravery?
Derrick Martin: It's bittersweet. It was an honour to be up there and to be recognized for that day. Two young men passed away, unfortunately, but also on the other hand, I was honoured to be up there with firefighters on B Platoon, people I work with every day, and London police officers as well.
Adam Froats: It was a tremendous honour to be there with the group of people that we were with that day. It's a few years behind us now, but to be able to collaborate and have some good come from such a tragic event, I think, is really nice.
AB: What do you remember about the call coming in that day?
DM: It was a different call. Definitely more heightened. I think it's the first time in my career — just a little over 30 years now — that I heard a building collapse come in. I was a captain on engine four that day, and we began responding on the 1st initial response. We definitely hit the gas harder on the engine and got there as quickly as we could.
AB: What were you dealing with when you arrived on scene?
DM: The first initial incident commander on Engine 3 painted a pretty good picture. He warned us of wet cement, and people were buried under all that rubble, steel, and concrete. He let us know to be prepared to the worst. When we got there we grabbed tools and rushed in to help the citizens, and out brothers and sisters that were already working inside.
AF: I was on a later responding unit, so we sort of knew what we were coming into. That said, you can't really imagine what that day entailed. When we arrived, we just kind of fit in where we could and helped, helped with removing concrete and trying to cut free as much as we could, and see who or what we had.
AB: Captain Martin, you mentioned the paramedics and the police officers who were there as well. What was everyone doing?
DM: It was an amazing scene to see. We were minutes behind the first arriving police and fire units. Everyone was working together. Even though it was a tragic event, it was an amazing sight to see everybody working together with police officers and fire for sure. Paramedics were inside briefly, but I believe they set up a staging area just outside the building. When a patient would come free, we would extricate and hand them off to them so they could get proper medical attention.
AB: What are you most proud of from that day?
DM: I'm definitely proud of our guys. They were truly amazing. They were selfless, they did everything that was asked. It was really an amazing response in all respects. I've never had a call like it before or obviously since.
AF: On my side, it's just kind of 'put your head down and work.' Working alongside other firefighters and some of the officers and even the surgeon team that they had on site from LHSC that day, was just problem solving. There's no training that can really prepare you for this.
I think everybody just set themselves aside and kept working until we came to the end.
AB: How are you both doing now?
DM: Yeah, I think so. We have a lot of support on London Fire if we need to talk to anybody. I guess my mindset is, we didn't cause the incident, but we just go to the scene and try and make it a little bit better.
We, we do the best we can do. That helps me deal with the issues we see or the, the scenes we see.
AF: What happened is tragic and terrible. If we're able to salvage any life, property, any of that, really, it's all we're able to, to do. When you actually step back and look at the day as a whole, talking to some some people that were there, it was really something remarkable.