By By LYDIA GRIMES – Features writer
The Alabama Association of Volunteer Fire Departments (AAVFD) met for the state conference Friday and Saturday, July 15 and 16 in Sheffield.
The conference was hosted by the Colbert County Association of Volunteer Fire Departments.
During the awards presentations at the conference there were five Escambia County firefighters who came home with awards.
Joey Moffett of the Roberts Volunteer Fire Department was named Male Volunteer Firefighter of the Year while Ginny Tyler of the Appleton Volunteer Fire Department was named Female Volunteer Firefighter of the Year. Tyler also received the Sherry Gardner Award.
Danita Smith, also with the Appleton Volunteer Fire Department, was named the Emergency Medical Person of the Year; Larry White of Flomaton won the A.C. Cook Award (which is similar to a lifetime achievement award); and Ronald Alford of the Brewton Fire Department was named Career Firefighter of the Year.
The conference speaker was Dan Sheridan, a captain in the 6th Division of the New York City Fire Department which covers The South Bronx and Harlem.
On Sept. 11, 2001, when he was a lieutenant, he arrived at the World Trade Center with his crew at 11 a.m., shortly after the second tower collapsed. He wound up spending most of September and the month of October at the WTC site.
In March of 2002 he spent a month on a special detail as part of the recovery crew.
That was a month when the recovery was nearing the end and many of the firefighters that were lost were found at the bottom of the site.
Sheridan has been cited eight times in the FDNY for bravery, three individual awards and five unit citations. He was also awarded a WTC campaign ribbon for his part in the recovery.