The latest accolade for Perry’s five firefighting heroes came at Monday night’s Perry City Council meeting, when the Perry Rotary Club bestowed their Civil Servant of the Year Award to Perry firefighters Izzy Baltazar, Brian Eiteman, Joel Eiteman, Bobby Harlan and Andy Modlin.
Perry Rotary Club President Dirk Cavanaugh presented a plaque on behalf of the club.
“The motto of the Rotary is Service above Self,” Cavanaugh said, “and these gentlemen certainly demonstrate that character.”
The volunteer firefighters saved the life of a man trapped in a burning house April 20, 2020, in Perry. Before the fire at 924 12th St. in Perry totally destroyed the residence, the heroes of self-sacrifice located 64-year-old Anastasio L. Galvan inside the fully engulfed house, determined he was alive but unconscious and assisted in carrying him out of harm’s way.
It was the first time in the history of Perry that a person has been saved from inside a burning building, according to local historians.
