State of Wisconsin

"Heroes are the people who do what has to be done, when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences."

The above words in blue describe heroes around the world. However, for those that have chosen to serve their communities as law enforcement officers and firefighters, the words you'll hear most often are the ones in italics. You won't find someone that has saved a life or changed a community through their efforts brag about it, or even talk about it in everyday conversation. They may quietly tell close family or friends what happened, but most often the stories become public knowledge from their co-workers, community, family and friends.

On these pages, you can read a bit more about the inductees of the State of Wisconsin Fire and Police Hall of Fame. These stories were not related by the person or persons themselves, but by those that live and serve with them. As you read through their stories, please remember the countless heroes that have not yet been recognized and may never be recognized publicly. For those that believe ALL of them should be recognized, remember that they need to be nominated by those that know the story, as they'd never nominate themselves. Again, the reason why is found in those six words.

Just after 7:00am, December 19, 1999, the Appleton Fire Department was dispatched to a house fire on the city’s southwest side. While on the way dispatchers told them that several calls were coming in reporting that flames were coming out of the homes second story windows. Reports also came in that someone may still be inside the burning home! Engine 323 was the first to arrive.

The engine crew consisted of Lieutenant Larry O’Rourke, Driver/Engineer Al Stuart, Firefighter Linda Kornely and Firefighter Roman Zareczny. The crew pulled a 1-3/4 inch hoseline into the house and took it directly up the stairway to the second floor. When they reached the second floor they were greeted by the quickly growing fire and thick smoke that had been reported to them. As they crawled forward they knocked down much of this fire and continued on through the thick smoke. They crawled forward through the heated living room, towards the kitchen, where they located a woman, Joyce Coutts, lying motionless on the floor.

At this time, Firefighter Kornely, aided by two members of the truck crew removed her from the burning home. To allow her removal, Lieutenant O’Rourke and Firefighter Zareczny had to continue fighting the fire. Once outside she was rushed to St. Elizabeth Hospital, where after a five day stay, was released. Joyce Coutts is now doing fine and has stopped by the fire station to thank the firefighters for all of their efforts.

Deputy Chief William Voboril is being inducted into the Hall of Fame for his lifetime achievement in the fire service. In 1996, after 35 years of dedicated service to the Milwaukee Fire Department, Deputy Chief William Voboril retired, but his work will continue to pave the way for hundreds, if not thousands, of better educated, better equipped and safer firefighters. William Voboril started as a firefighter in 1961, During the ensuing years he developed and spearheaded many projects, including the current “FOCUS” (Firefighters Out Creating Urban Safety) program, which has greatly reduced fire deaths in targeted areas. While assigned to the Bureau of Instruction and Training, Voboril taught nearly 600 of Milwaukee’s firefighter recruits. This figure represents over half of the department.

He developed new procedures for Milwaukee’s high rise operations, augmented the “Back To Basics” operations, and led the effort to change hose size from 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 inch (this act alone nearly doubled the efficiency of Milwaukee’s engine companies). When the push was on to create a hazardous materials team, Voboril was on the steering committee and became its first training officer. Likewise, when the Incident Command System was being organized in Milwaukee, he was there. In 1982 he was selected as the State of Wisconsin “Firefighter of the Year” by the American Legion. Deputy Chief Voboril also was instrumental in building the “Survive Alive House” and in establishing the Foundation for the Milwaukee Fire Education Center, which ensures the continuation of the Survive Alive House, located at 2059 South 20th Street in Milwaukee. He has lectured all around the State of Wisconsin and beyond, spreading his experienced words of wisdom wherever they were needed.
Deputy Chief Voboril’s career is much greater than this partial list of accomplishments. The result is that every time a call comes in to the Milwaukee Fire Department, or many other fire departments, part of their professional response can be credited directly to the work of Deputy Chief William Voboril.

In the morning of March 21,1997 the Madison Police Department was dispatched to a home in the city’s West side. The man they were sent to look for lived with his elderly parents and had a felony warrant out for his arrest. He was evading a jail sentence.
Officer Andy Garcia arrived at the home, ahead of Officer Tim Hahn and contacted the wanted man in his basement. Officer Garcia told the man that he was going to be taken into custody. At hearing this, the man tried to escape by punching and forcing his way past Officer Garcia and then locked himself in a bathroom just as Officer Hahn arrived at the scene. Officer Garcia asked Officer Hahn to try and get a key to the bathroom from the man’s parents, who were still upstairs. As Officer Hahn started climbing the stairway, the man suddenly emerged from the bathroom with a handgun and started shooting at Officer Garcia from point-blank range! Officer Garcia, being taken completely by surprise, did not have an opportunity to return fire. As he was trying to take cover, he was able to shout a warning to Officer Hahn but all three shots had struck him and Officer Garcia fell to the floor.
Hearing the gunshots, Officer Hahn ran back down the stairs, what he saw next was the gunman advancing towards the stricken officer, getting ready to shoot again. Officer Hahn immediately engaged the gunman before he could do more harm to Officer Garcia. A barrage of shots were fired between the gunman and Officer Hahn. This was done as Officer Hahn stood in the open stairway with no cover to protect himself. Narrowly missed by all of the attackers bullets, Officer Hahn returned fire until the gunman was no longer a danger to anyone, he then removed the gunman’s weapon and handcuffed him.
His job not done yet, Officer Hahn called for an ambulance and checked on the condition of Officer Garcia, he also radioed to the other responding officers to use caution as the scene was not yet safe. He then cleared the entire basement, checking for any additional threats before advising the other officers that it was safe to enter the basement.
It is only because of Officer Timothy Hahn’s courage, quick action and highly trained response to this deadly threat that the two officers survived this savage attack. Officer Garcia, who survived his wounds partially due to the fact that he was wearing his ballistic vest, believes that he would have surely been killed had Officer Hahn not intervened at the precise moment he did.

   For thirty years, starting in 1960, Daniel Kalscheur worked as a police officer for the Madison Police Department. Midway through his career, on January 8, 1975, Officer Kalscheur was faced with a call that all officers continually train for but seldom have occur.
   As Officer Kalscheur was taking care of an earlier call, a call came in for an armed robbery taking place at the Commercial State Bank, and that a suspect vehicle was fleeing the scene. Heading towards the direction of the call, several radio reports were being given and a number of other squad cars were in the area searching for the robbers. Officer Kalscheur was flagged down by a bank employee that had been following the getaway car and was told that it was parked behind a nearby store. As Officer Kalscheur drove to where the car was, he got his first look at one of the suspects.
   Officer Kalscheur was soon seen by the robber and the robber ran to an awaiting car. At a distance of only ten to fifteen feet the robber started shooting at Officer Kalscheur. Both Officer Kalscheur and the robbers maneuvered their cars to try and get to an advantageous position. Officer Kalscheur moved his squad car back and forth to try and make himself a much more difficult target to hit and was also able to fire a few rounds back at the robbers. The getaway car suddenly took off, starting the chase over again.
   During this chase Officer Kalscheur was able to get his shotgun, load it, and after a number of turns, faced the suspects as they were taking up a defensive position behind their getaway car. At a distance of only twenty feet Officer Kalscheur saw the driver pointing his handgun directly at another police officer and was able to stop him by using his shotgun. At seeing his accomplice fall, the second suspect dropped his weapon and raised his hands in surrender.
   Officer Kalscheur’s squad car was later found to have had 18 bullet holes. When asked about this he said “Well, they missed my car a number of times.” Also a bystander was injured as he was shot at by one of the robbers as he was attempting to forcibly take his truck. The two bank robbers were an extreme danger to the community and in the surviving suspects statement to another officer said that the robbery “...was meant to be successful”.

Upon arrival of the Dive Rescue Team, firefighter Tim Newman put on his diving gear and met with firefighter Dennis Curley in the water to attempt to remove the victims from the submerged car. firefighter Newman dove under and assessed the vehicle. He found that neither door could be opened and that he would have to break a window to get in. Firefighter Curley was using a window punch tool at this time so firefighter Newman tried using his dive knife to "pop" a window. These efforts did not work. Firefighter Curley became nauseated and was unable to continue, this left firefighter Newman alone to continue with the rescue efforts. This time he took a fire axe down with him and used it successfully to gain entry into the car.

During his search of the interior of the car firefighter Newman found and removed a small child from the car and brought her to the surface. Again firefighter Newman descended into the cold, dark water and found an adult victim only to realize the man was entangled in his seat belt, which would need to be cut in order to remove him. While getting a cutting tool firefighter Newman saw that he had only two minutes of air left in his tank but decided to descend again to try and remove the victim.

With the visibility at zero firefighter Newman was able to cut the seat belt and free the man but at this time he ran out of air and was unable to breathe or inflate his buoyancy compensator. Although he could have chosen to rescue himself, firefighter Newman held on to the victim and was able to pull him up using a safety rope that was connected to shore. The victims care was taken over by the land based teams and firefighter Newman was assisted with the removal of his face piece, which finally allowed him to breath.

The actions taken by firefighter Newman on this day were truly heroic and were taken at great risk to himself. Sadly, as was the driver's intentions, both he and the child died, but they were both given the greatest possible chance of survival by the actions of firefighter Timothy Newman and all of the other members of the Milwaukee Fire Department present at this call.

On March 17, 1999, in an old brick firehouse on the North side of La Crosse, engine company four was settling in for the night. The day had been uneventful, but that changed quickly when a house fire was announced over the speaker. The home on George Street was only three blocks from the station. The four firefighters on the engine were, Captain James Hotvedt, Engineer Greg Olson and firefighters Tim Oland and Craig Snyder.

Having been told victims were upstairs, Captain Hotvedt’s crew did not search any first floor rooms. The crew located the stairway and proceeded up with an attack line. At the top of the stairs they found a bedroom and did a right hand search. The beds were checked with no results. About this time the seat of the fire was located by another incoming crew. Captain Hotvedt’s attack line was then moved to the fire assuming that it was likely to be the other bedroom and possibly where the victim could be found. As the attack line was being moved radio traffic indicated to firefighters that one victim had been found downstairs.

As the men were changing their air tanks, it was discovered that yet another child was unaccounted for. After completing the air change, they entered the building again to attack the fire and continue the search. After exhaustive work, the third victim was found by firefighter Snyder. Captain Hotvedt’s low-air alarm bell was going off, but he stayed to help bring the boy out of the building.

At 7:45 p.m., November 25, 2000 a call came in to the Manitowoc fire and police departments for a report of a house fire on Cleveland Ave. While enroute, dispatch announced that a woman was inside the burning home but would not leave until her dog was found. As emergency personnel rushed to the scene the phone line fell silent. Manitowoc police officer David McCue arrived first to the burning home and reported that there was thick smoke and flames coming from the downstairs level extending up to the second floor.

Officer McCue went around the outside of the home looking for the missing woman. He came upon the back door and was able to see her lying on the kitchen floor, under the heavy smoke layer. Officer McCue then made the decision that he would go inside and try to get her out. He first took a large breath, held it, and then proceeded to crawl under the smoke and with great effort was able to pull the unconscious woman outside onto the back deck where they were met by a fellow police officer who helped carry her to a safe place away from her burning home. The victim was then attended to by Manitowoc Paramedics and regained consciousness. Her pet dog, Willie, fled the home as officer McCue opened the door and was later caught and found to be in good health.

Officer David McCue is a past volunteer firefighter and is well aware of the dangers he faced during this rescue, but he was also aware of the danger Ms. Pieschel was in and that a moments hesitation could cost her her life. According to the words of the Manitowoc Fire Chief "...due to the intensity of the fire, the victim, Susan Pieschel, would have surely perished had you not put yourself at risk to save her..."

At 1:20 in the afternoon of April 17, 1941, City of Superior Constable A G. Jacobson was shot three times as he was serving an eviction notice to a man in Superior's East End neighborhood. The wounds proved fatal as Constable Jacobson died the next day.

This sad story started two months earlier as the first eviction notice had been served to the man and his family, a family of nine. As a temporary halt to the eviction the father reported an outbreak of chicken pox in his house which then had to be quarantined. During this period of quarantine the man was able to get out and procure a .32 pistol which he had used threateningly toward his family. The man even had one of his daughters unload and load the gun in front of his family to show them that it was loaded. Reports of this gun and his actions got to the Superior Police Department and they attempted to find the gun but were unsuccessful.

On the day before the shooting, Constable Jacobson had gone to the home with a priest in order to help them find resolution to their housing problem. During this visit the man “...brandished a revolver...and declared that he ‘didn’t like people who stuck their noses into his business.” This brought an abrupt end to this assistance. With great dedication to his public service, the unarmed constable returned the next day to fulfill his obligation and served the fateful eviction notice to the man and his family.

Police officers go to work and unselfishly perform their duties knowing fully that this could be their last day. It is with this spirit and dedication to service that Constable Jacobson will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame as a reminder of all those lost in the line of duty.

All of these people were nominated by their peers, family, or other citizens for extraordinary acts of bravery, lifetime achievements in their field, or exceptional service to their community.

David Johnson
c/o Superior Fire Department
3326 Tower Avenue
Superior, WI 54880
715-394-0227