Firefighter given Medal of Valor

Jill Brackett-Coppler

(Updated: Thursday, December 18, 2008, 11:59 AM)

Gov. Schwarzenegger has awarded firefighter and Coarsegold resident Franklin Johnson with the Medal of Valor -- California's highest public service honor.

In early February, Johnson, who was stationed in Merced, was dispatched to a residential fire in Delhi. Within minutes of the call, his crew arrived on scene to flames consuming a small mobile home and a mother in the yard screaming for her boy, still inside.

Johnson rushed in and began an adrenaline-fed, but calculated search inside. With no visibility, he felt along the walls and floors, nearing collapse. The heat began to blister his arm despite his suit's temperature resistance

"It was definitely burning hot and they burn so fast," he said of mobile homes. "There was so much fire, I wasn't sure how I would get the boy out if I did find him."

In minutes Johnson was joined by partner James Allen. As the two struggled to find the boy's room, they leaned against a wall, spongy and weakened from the fire. The two pushed through to enter in the blocked room as flames were licking the ceiling.

As Johnson felt around, he first found a small dog and then, finally, the 11-year-old boy unconscious and face down.

Johnson and Allen passed the boy out through a broken window and into the arms of medical personnel.

In the course of just seven minutes, Johnson and Allen had saved a life.

Johnson said it wasn't until the two were back at the station to clean up and eat dinner, that the reality of the rescue set in.

"It actually took a while to soak in what happened," he said. "Some guys go their whole career without having a rescue like that."

In fact, at the award ceremony held in Sacramento at the Crest Theater Dec. 9, Johnson was the youngest of the seven awarded -- each with tales of dramatic rescues.

And for Johnson, it was the ceremony, not the fire that was the scary part.

"I'm not the center-of-attention guy, I don't like that at all, that's not my deal," he said. "I was scared and glad when it was over."

Despite her son's nervousness, Denise Trappen, Johnson's mother couldn't be prouder of her son. Trappen said she's known since he was a boy that he would grow up to be a firefighter.

At 9, Johnson extinguished a toaster oven fire. At 12 he extinguished an engine fire in a neighbor's truck. At 15 he was first to sign up to run pyrotechics for a church play.

Trappen said that Johnson has had a "rescue mentality" his whole life.

"Beyond the medal and what he had to do to get it, I am proud of the young man he has become," Trappen said. "I would like to be like him when I grow up."

Johnson, now stationed in Coarsegold, said the experience has given him a new perspective.

"I look at my fire training a lot differently now," he said. "We do a lot of training and it gets kind of mundane. You never think you are going to use it, but when you do, you learn to appreciate what you learned.

"Now when I train, I see where I could use it."