FLEMING ISLAND – They were brought on the stage in groups. Ryan and his son, Weston Daw. Dwight McVey and Joe Bianco. Then Clay County Fire Rescue Lt. Thomas Gill and Lt. Joe Hutchins, followed by CCRF’s Lt. Patrick Peacock, Eng. James Conomea, Firefighter Neil Rosch, Eng. Ryan Rhodes and Firefighter Graham Rattray and Chief William Futch. 

In between each group, a proclamation was read, detailing each’s role in one of the most incredible rescues in Clay County history: 

“On August 25th, 2024, at approximately 1,900 hours (7 p.m.), units were dispatched to a boating accident with reports of four adults in the water and one infant missing.” 

Bianco, McVey and Jay Oppenborn (who couldn’t attend the awards ceremony) were at the Black Creek Marina and Bait Shop when they heard the frantic screams from a family in the channel of the Black Creek and St. Johns River after their See-Doo Switch pontoon boat flipped upside-down, trapping an 11-month-old girl under the boat. 

They sped to the scene, and McVey tried unsuccessfully for several minutes to find the child. 

Gill and Hutchins were driving on U.S. Highway 17 in opposite directions when they heard the call. They happened to be passing the Black Creek Marina, and they both pulled in. They quickly spotted the Daws, who were pulling away from the launch to go shrimping, and they implored them to take them to the overturned boat. 

When they arrived, Gill immediately jumped into the brackish water. He remained submerged for nearly five minutes, with Hutchins on the Daw’s boat, impatiently adhering to the agency’s “one in, one on” policy that prohibits having two responders in the water. 

Just as CCFR command on the shoreline was about to deliver a gut-wrenching orders“fireman down,” Baby Vianca’s lifeless gray body poked through the blackish water. Hutchins grabbed her tiny hand and immediately started CPR, while the elder Daws grabbed Gills’ hand before slowing sinking back into an internal abyss. 

Other responders stepped in and assisted with the rescue effort. Although Vianca had been under water for an estimated 13 minutes, they rallied around the little girl. Men so accustomed to seeing the harshest of humanity suddenly were determined to bring this baby back to life. 

Once on shore, Hutchins handed Vianca to Conomea, who continued CPR. Conomea, Peacock and Hutchins commandeered a CCFR rescue squad ambulance and drove Vianca to Baptist Health Clay. While enroute, Conomea said Vianca shockingly flinched and showed small signs of life. 

As the large group were honored for their bravery and service at the semi-annual Awards Ceremony at the Church of the Eleven22 on Fleming Island on Friday, May 1, nothing was better than a certificate than when Vianca Grullon and her parents walked across the stage to personally thank everyone for saving their daughter. 

Twenty-two months later, Vianca laughed and sometimes chirped on the stage, especially after the fire and rescue department gave her a gift bag, which included a stuffed animal. 

She defied every sense of science and medical reasoning after being deprived of oxygen for more than 13 minutes and surviving. Experts told her parents to expect the worst, and each time, Vianca has dramatically, if not defiantly, exceeded all expectations. Her recovery was an intrical part of the biyearly ceremony. 

Fire Rescue honors its members every two years, and the agency makes those decisions seriously. 

“For fire service members here, this is kind of our Oscars night, right? We get to recognize extraordinary things that people have done,” said Fire Chief Lorin Mock. 

“We are firefighters because we want to be firefighters. We understand the risks, the sacrifice and take on those risks and sacrifice of our own free will. Firefighters do not regard themselves as heroes because they do what the business requires. We are no more brave than any person on the street who steps in front of a speeding train, hoping to save a person who fell in the tracks or ran into a burning building to save a baby. 

“Courage, you see, is everywhere. When called upon, average people do extraordinary things. But we as firefighters are simply blessed, blessed to be called upon doing that often. That's what we celebrate here tonight.” 

The awards included: 

• Medal of Honor – Lt. Thomas Gill, who came within seconds of drowning while rescuing 11-month-old Vianca after the child was trapped for about 13 minutes in Black Creek. After being under water for nearly five minutes, when asked how much longer he was willing to look for the child, he said, “I wasn’t coming up without her.” Gill ingested so much water; he was rushed to the hospital after he needed to be rescued from the creek. 

• Meritorious Service Awards – Lt. Joe Hutchins and Lt. Thomas Gill for their roles – Gill, who jumped in the water; Hutchins who administered immediate CPR during Baby Vianca’s Black Creek rescue on Aug. 25, 2024. 

• Meritorious Service Awards – Lt. John Taylor II, Firefighter Hayden Marion and Lt. Kevin Ingram for their entry and rescue on Dec. 12, 2025, of a home engulfed in flames by someone smoking while using oxygen. All three entered the home blackened in smoke to recover the victim, then they returned to rescue a woman in a back bedroom by removing her through a window. 

• 2024 Career Firefighter of the Year – Lt. Thomas Gill for his heroic actions on Aug. 25 for jumping into Black Creek, without regard for his personal safety, to rescue Baby Vianca after she had been trapped under an overturned pontoon boat for nearly 13 minutes. 

• 2025 Career Firefighter of the Year – Lt. John Taylor II for his heroic actions, without regard for his own personal safety, to crawl into a home engulfed in flames and filled with thick, black smoke to recover a victim, then return to rescue a woman and pass her safely through a bedroom window on Dec. 12. 

• Volunteer Firefighter of the Year – Dave Steiner for completing tasks with unwavering loyalty and reliability like deploying woods or air trucks or filling Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus bottles, often without direction and wherever needed. 

• Civilian Citation Awards – Ryan Daw, Weston Daw, Dwight McVeigh, Jay Oppenborn and Joe Bianco for their roles in the rescue of Vianca Grullon from Black Creek. 

• Dr. Pete Gianas EMS Memorial Award – Chief Gregory Martin, Lt. Justin Gowell, Eng. Sean Thompson, Firefighter Katie Loomis, Lt. Christopher Long, Eng. Mark Kaminski, Lt. Brian Dominguez and Eng. Cody Lanier – for their quick response following a single-car accident on Nov. 3, 2024, that left a 17-year-old boy with life-threatening injuries to his face and neck and life-threatening injuries to the torso to a 16-year-old girl. The EMS crews from two stations began resuscitation on both, including performing a surgical airway procedure on the boy called a cricothyrotomy. Their efforts led to the eventual recovery of both. 

• Distinguished Service Award – Communication Specialist 2, Susan Coley and Communication Specialist 1, Grace Lartique for their roles by coordinating simultaneous communications on May 23, 2025, after a massive commercial fire broke out at Hagan Ace Hardware on Blanding Boulevard, a double-wide mobile home fire in Keystone Heights and multiple high-profile medical calls. 

• Espirit De Corps – Emergency Communications Specialist Sarah A. Smith, who responded on her own time to the Emergency Operations Center on May 23, 2025, on a night when the 911 system was overwhelmed by emergency and non-emergency calls. 

• Unit Citation – Lt. Patrick Peacock, Eng. James Conomea, Firefighter Amir Rosh, Eng. Ryan Rose and Firefighter Graham Ratcher for their combined efforts during the Baby Vianca’s Black Creek rescue. 

• Administrative Employee of the Year – Logistics Section Bureau Chief Dudley Lee for his commitment to keep the agency in peak condition to be dependable, responsive and always ready to perform with modernization and standardization department uniforms and protective gear. 

The awards ceremony closed with acting fire chief David Motes, saying responders briefly stepped away from the frontlines long enough to be recognized but assured they would be back the moment the ceremony closed. 

“As we move forward, we continue to build the department and live the lives and values, not just in words, but in action, pride, professionalism, protection and professionalism every day,” he said. “Tonight, we celebrate. Tomorrow we will go back to work with the same purpose, with same commitment to the same mission.”