Amanda Bernier, center, received the 2015 Connecticut District Exchange Club’s Salute

to Connecticut’s Bravest award. The North Madison Volunteer Fire Company member

was joined by (from left) Denise Bernier, Chris Bernier, Tim Herget, and Jeff Pumm

at the Oct. 15 ceremony.

Amanda Bernier, the Madison firefighter battling ALS while raising her newborn daughter with husband and fellow firefighter Chris Bernier, was one of this year’s honorees at the Connecticut District Exchange Club’s Salute to Connecticut’s Bravest, an award that recognizes outstanding firefighters from cities and towns throughout the state. The event, held on Oct. 15 at the Aqua Turf in Plantsville, honored a woman whose continuing fight has inspired so many in the local community and beyond.

Raised in a family of firefighters, Amanda joined the Lancaster, New York Volunteer Fire Department as an explorer when she was in high school and eventually became a senior member. In 2006 she joined the North Madison Volunteer Fire Company, and in 2011 she began work as an emergency medical services responder with Madison Ambulance.

Shortly after becoming pregnant in 2014, 30-year-old Amanda was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that causes the deterioration of motor neurons, loss of voluntary muscle movements, and eventually death. Patients lose the ability to move their limbs and to talk, swallow, and breathe. Amanda’s ALS was a particularly aggressive form that had taken her mother’s and grandmother’s lives.

Although she did not know whether she would survive her pregnancy long enough to meet her baby face to face, Amanda and her husband welcomed daughter Arabella Grace on Nov. 4, 2014, and will soon be celebrating her first birthday.

Since Arabella’s birth, Amanda has earned national recognition for her efforts in raising ALS awareness. This year, despite losing her ability to both move any part of her body except for her eyes and breathe without a ventilator, she has written honestly and poignantly—via an eye-tracker—about her experiences as an ALS patient. Thousands have read and been inspired by her stories, shared widely on Facebook.

Local media outlets have featured stories about her work on behalf of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Today.com, Parents.com and a host of additional online publications picked up her inspiring narrative about overcoming the challenges of breast-feeding Arabella after it went viral.

“There are no routine calls,” she says.

She recalled a life-alert activation call, for instance. Normally such a call is a false alarm, nothing really, as people often set it off without knowing. Amanda and her partner, however, arrived on scene to hear an elderly man calling from the roof, where he’d fallen face-down after slipping on the moss in an attempt to clean his gutters.

“My wife can’t find out about this!” he told her repeatedly.

Amanda and her partner climbed on the roof and helped him back inside through his bedroom window.

Later that same night, Amanda responded to another call that took her past the evening’s earlier accident scene. She steered around the spot into the opposite lane, unable to drive over the place where the father had just died.

“That was my worst call,” she says.

Determined to hold her own as a female firefighter, Amanda constantly trained and conditioned.

“The fire does not care if you are male or female,” she says.

Within months after running road races, however, she was unable to climb into a fire truck on her own. She turned around to her husband, behind her as she climbed the steps.

“My legs,” she told him.

Though she didn’t yet know it, gene mutation SOD1 had begun its course. That familial ALS known to her ancestors since the 1700s as the “Underwood Disease” had awakened in Amanda, whose family name is Underwood.

Amanda continues her work on behalf of ALS while writing letters and preparing gifts for Arabella to read on her birthdays, her wedding day, and other milestone occasions.

And she continues as a first responder, listening to radio communications and answering calls in the only way she can: prayer. Nevertheless, she adds, “If it’s your time it’s your time.”

Whether a routine lift-assist or the worst of calls, she is present and helping, still, at the scene.

Article and photo by Mary Elliott

North Madison Fire would like to remind all residents to change the batteries in their smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. Taking this simple step can save the lives of you and your family.

Many fatal fires occur at night while the victims are sleeping. A working smoke alarm can double the chances of survival by increasing the amount of time a person has to escape a fire in their home. Fire safety is as simple as making a habit of changing your smoke detector batteries when the time changes in spring and fall.

Remember these tips about smoke alarms:

Have smoke alarms on every level of your home, especially outside sleeping areas—and preferably inside bedrooms as well.

Test them at least once a month

Replace all detectors after 10 years.

Place smoke alarms according to manufacturer’s directions.

Clean the outside ONLY of a smoke alarm by gently going over the cover with the brush attachment of your vacuum cleaner. Never paint a smoke alarm.

Whenever a smoke alarm beeps, take it seriously. It might just be a false alarm from cooking, temperature changes, or dust—but you can’t afford to ignore the alert. Everyone in the family needs to react immediately.

Develop and practice a home escape plan. Make sure your family knows two ways out of each room, a safe meeting place outside, how to call 9-1-1 once they’re out, and why they should NEVER go back into a burning house.

There are 10,300 fires during the three-day period around Halloween. These fires cause about 25 deaths, 125 injuries and $83 million in property loss.

North Madison Fire would like to help our community  be safer during Halloween by sharing a few fire safety tips with our residents:

• Choose a costume without long trailing fabric. This can cause a child to trip or may touch flames in jack-o’-lanterns or other decorations.
• If you make your own costume, use materials that won’t catch on fire easily if they come in contact with heat or flame.
• Give your children flashlights or glow sticks so they can see where they are walking.
• Keep decorations away from candles, light bulbs or heaters.
• Consider using flameless candles or glow sticks in your jack-o’-lantern.
• Keep exits clear of decorations.

For more information about Halloween fires and fire safety, check out the U.S. Fire Administration’s website, where you can find Halloween social media cards to share and the Halloween fire data snapshot.

North Madison Fire would like to extend a big thanks to all of the residents and visitors who attended this year’s open house, it was a great success! Photos from the todays events will be available later this week. We would like to see some of your photos, please send them our way!

Gabe.Balsamo@nmvfc.org

Bedroom Burn Box 2015

Do you know how old your smoke alarms are? Like many products you use on a daily basis, smoke alarms don’t last forever. Manufacturers recommend that you replace them every 10 years. To check the date your smoke alarm was made, look at the back of the alarm or inside the battery compartment. If it’s time to replace your alarms, consider buying ones with ten-year lithium batteries.

For more information on smoke alarms, the U.S. Fire Administration .

As part of our annual fund drive we mail out a request for donations and this year was no different. Unfortunately, due to technical issue, many of you may have received an envelope that was improperly addressed. On behalf of the entire company I would like to apologize for inconvenience or confusion this may have caused and assure you that we are working diligently to correct it. We hope to have it resolved shortly.  You may open the letter and donate if you wish by mail or on our secure website. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me at:  Chief@NMVFC.org

-Chief MacMillan

Fund Drive Letter:

“Smoke alarms save lives. If there is a fire in your home, smoke spreads fast and you need smoke alarms to give you time to get out. Having a working smoke alarm cuts the chances of dying in a reported fire in half. Almost two-thirds of home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.

• Install smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on every level of your home.
• Test your smoke alarms every month.
• Replace batteries every six months.
• When a smoke alarm sounds, get outside and stay outside.
• Replace all smoke alarms in your home every 10 years

The key message of this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign, October 4-10, is to install smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each separate sleeping area, and on every level of your home, including the basement. Larger homes may need more alarms.”

For more info please vist the National Fire Prevention Agency