IBEW 1837 Members Receive Lifesaving Awards

Versant Maine Members Use CPR and AED Skills to Help Save a Co-Worker:

Cameron Bragg, Scott Madore, Danny Morin and Steve Sager are Lineworkers from Versant Maine who performed lifesaving CPR measures on fellow IBEW 1837 member Kevin Young. Brother Young had suffered an apparent heart attack in Presque Isle on February 2, 2022 and was found crouched down in a snowbank on the side of the road. The actions of the four lineworkers have been recognized by the IBEW International Safety Department with Lifesaving Awards.

Brother Cameron Bragg told IBEW that it was an incredible coincidence that they had just received CPR training earlier that same morning, a training that they receive once every two years. Brother Young had gone ahead of the crew 10 minutes earlier and was shoveling snow around the base of a utility pole where the crew was set to work. When the crews arrived, they saw Young crouching down behind the snowbank.

“We hollered at Kevin and he didn’t move,” Bragg said. “I jumped out of the truck first and ran over and that’s when we noticed something was wrong.”

Brother Steve Sager told IBEW that while the crew began CPR assessments, he jumped on the two-way radio to ask dispatch to call 911 with their location. The approximately 15-minute wait for an ambulance seemed like an eternity.

“We continued CPR,” Sager said, “and as the ambulance crew arrived the paramedic asked, ‘What are you guys doing for compressions?’ and Cameron replied ‘30 to2.’ He said, ‘Great don't stop! You're doing great.’ We continued as the ambulance crew got setup and got a backboard for loading Kevin. The AED assessed and shocked Kevin six times. The paramedics loaded Kevin in the ambulance and they left shortly after that.”

After a few days, Brother Young was sending funny texts and photos to his co-workers from the hospital, and he was recuperating at home less than a week later. He soon returned to work on light duty to a warm welcome from everyone at Versant Maine.

“What they did out there was nothing short of amazing,” Danny Gahagan, a Presque Isle Firefighter and Paramedic said. “In almost 20 years of being in EMS, I have never arrived at a scene and was this impressed with the work being done.”

Central Maine Power Members Help Save Two People from Burning Building:

Adam Douin, Jeffrey Dyer, Carl Urquhart are CMP traveling Lineworkers out of Portland who literally rescued two people from a burning building in Richmond, Maine, on May 18, 2022. Their actions have been recognized by the IBEW International Safety Department with Lifesaving Awards.

 “They definitely deserve recognition,” Richmond Fire Chief John Bellino told the Portland Press Herald. “It was very dramatic. They certainly went above and beyond.”

Brother Dyer told IBEW that they were finishing work at a nearby CMP materials yard when they saw smoke. They raced to the nearby scene in their personal cars and arrived at the same time as two neighbors. After helping a man climb out of a 10-foot-high window, they quickly turned to rescue the man’s mother from a 2nd floor window as the fire spread. Brother Dyer remembered that they needed a ladder to reach her since they didn’t have their CMP trucks.

“Thank God the neighbor had one and it was the same kind we had in our bucket truck,” Dyer said. “The hardest part was getting the woman to come out of the window, she was older, about 65, and we had to move the ladder to her right above the fire. She’s walking down the ladder, the t-shirt got stuck and her feet were burning. She fell off the ladder but luckily we caught her. Two to four minutes later the house was completely engulfed in flames.” 

Although she suffered serious burns on her feet, she fully recovered and expressed gratitude to her two neighbors and our three members from IBEW 1837.

“We get trained for this stuff. Its situational. Assess, call 911, we do it on tailboard every day,” Jeffrey Dyer said.