SARANAC LAKE - Four members of the Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department will share the Franklin County Firefighter of the Year award for saving a man who was asleep in his burning apartment early in the morning of May 19 at the Prescott House on Franklin Avenue.
Fire Chief Brendan Keough, firefighter John Duchaine and paid fire drivers John Derby and Aaron Donaldson will be recognized at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Highland Golf Course in Dickenson.
The four helped rescue Stuart Pendleton from the second floor of the multi-unit apartment building, likely saving his life. Pendleton slept as his apartment burned partly because he had just worked 12-hour shifts for two days in a row as a nurse at a Lake Placid nursing home. He also had a noise machine to help him sleep. Keough and Duchaine woke him and helped him escape while Derby and Donaldson set up hoses to keep the fire from spreading.