{"id":112316,"date":"2019-01-23T09:15:58","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T14:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=112316"},"modified":"2019-01-24T02:24:46","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T07:24:46","slug":"van-wert-man-honored-for-saving-life-of-city-fire-victim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2019\/01\/23\/van-wert-man-honored-for-saving-life-of-city-fire-victim\/","title":{"rendered":"City man honored for saving woman&#8217;s life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong><em>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local resident Thomas Staup was honored Tuesday by city officials, including Mayor Jerry Mazur, Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming, and Fire Chief Jon Jones, for saving the life of an elderly neighbor in December 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Staup-honored-for-saving-life-1-2019.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-112317\" width=\"356\" height=\"266\"\/><figcaption><strong>Van Wert resident Thomas Staup (left) receives a plaque from VWFD Lt. Brian Ankney for his efforts in saving the life of a neighbor during a house fire in early December 2018, while Fire Chief Jon Jones reads a citation honoring Staup\u2019s efforts.<\/strong>\u00a0Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a cold winter\u2019s day on Wednesday, December 5, 2018, and Staup, who lives in the 500 block of Burt Street, was taking a nap on his living room couch when he noticed smoke and fire coming out of a neighbor\u2019s house shortly after 2:15 that afternoon. Knowing the woman who lived in the house used a walker and had a hard time getting around, Staup jumped up and ran to the burning house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe went over there in shorts in the middle of winter, busted through her front door, and she was sitting at her kitchen table,\u201d said Chief Jones, adding that the woman was unaware that her house was even on fire. \u201cHe assisted her out of the house and over to his home, where she went in for some shelter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Staup, a former law enforcement officer in Allen County who had also worked at Lima Correctional Institution, and had spent a tour of duty in Germany as a military policeman in the U.S. Army, said his response was part of his training as a first responder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was just second nature, I tell you, I didn\u2019t even think about it,\u201d said Staup. \u201cThe only thing I thought about afterwards, I was like: \u2018Hey, I ain\u2019t getting paid for this no more\u2019.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fire Lt. Brian Ankney, who was in charge of VWFD efforts in fighting the fire, noted that firefighters were at first unsure if there was someone in the house when they arrived, but later talked to Mr. Staup and discovered the house\u2019s resident was safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>In recognition of his lifesaving action, Chief Jones presented Staup with a plaque and a VWFD Challenge Coin for his actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTo the fire department, our motto is \u2018guarding my every neighbor\u2019, and, with his act of bravery, I think (Staup) echoes this to the fullest degree,\u201d the fire chief said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lt. Ankney said the fire apparently started in a storage area of the residence, but no cause of the fire was ever determined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Local resident Thomas Staup was honored Tuesday by city officials, including Mayor Jerry Mazur, Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming, and Fire Chief Jon Jones, for saving the life of an elderly neighbor in December 2018. It was a cold winter\u2019s day on Wednesday, December 5, 2018, and Staup, who lives in the 500 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 21:04:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}