‘Risk a lot to save a lot’: Addison firefighter to receive state’s highest honor for daring rescue

When his crew pulled up to a business engulfed in flames May 21, Addison Fire Protection District firefighter/paramedic Gino Casciola was given what he calls the “mundane” task of standing outside the burning building and feeding a hose to colleagues fighting the blaze from the inside.

What happened next was anything but mundane, and Casciola’s courage in the moments that followed might have saved several of his peers from the ultimate sacrifice.

“After it was over, we started hearing from the guys that were in there, ‘We almost died in there,’ ” Deputy Chief Chris Mansfield said. “ ’And if it wasn’t for Gino, we probably would have.’ ”

Months after his heroics, Casciola’s actions are being recognized by the Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal, which is awarding Casciola its Illinois Fire Service Medal of Valor. It’s the highest honor given to a firefighter in Illinois, awarded to those who demonstrate exceptional courage, bravery and a commitment to protecting others at great personal risk.

Becoming a hero wasn’t on Casciola’s mind the morning of May 21, when he and three fellow firefighters boarded a truck and headed to a blaze sweeping through a former fast-food restaurant turned smoke shop along busy Lake Street.

Sitting in a rear-facing seat as the truck pulled up to the scene, it wasn’t immediately obvious to Casciola what they were dealing with until his lieutenant told him, “Get ready to go to work.”

“I turned around and saw Lake Street completely covered in smoke,” said Casciola, a full-time Addison firefighter for five years. “You couldn’t see from one side of the road to the other.”

The crew masked up and Casciola was assigned what he describes as the “typically mundane” role of guiding a hose line from outside the building to the crew members battling flames on the inside.

The fire spread into an unseen void area above firefighters’ heads and then was further fueled by exploding butane containers — “sounded like gunshots,” Casciola says — and other combustible smoke shop merchandise. It quickly overwhelmed the firefighters inside, and they were ordered to evacuate.

Casciola, however, stood his ground, reached through the heavy smoke into the building and pulled three fellow firefighters to safety.

When another order to retreat came, Casciola went toward the danger.

“We still had two guys inside,” he said. “They could not find the exit. I knew they didn’t have much time just from the amount of heat I could feel coming out.”

As smoke and flames poured out, Casciola went in, cleared a path to the exit and located one of the firefighters. After pulling him to safety, Casciola went in again, found the second firefighter and led him out of the building.

“Without Gino, they probably would have been seriously hurt or killed,” Mansfield said.

Casciola admits that having his fellow firefighters in danger heightened the stress of the moment. It also ensured he had no second thoughts or hesitation about putting himself in harm’s way to rescue them.

“The brotherhood (among firefighters), it’s a cliche to say, but it’s true” he said. “We have a saying … we risk a lot to save a lot. That was all I needed to go in.”