Lifesavers Pollard And Quilter Are Humble Heroes

It was a year ago to the day.

The last person in the burning house, an aged woman, had likely taken a few steps  before she fell feet from her bedroom doorway, unconscious, smoke thick in an inferno surrounding her. Outside, just after 4 a.m., police officers had tried to get inside, but were overcome by heat and smoke.

Volunteer firefighters from Center Groton Fire District began spraying the house on North Road, as another fire rig barreled toward the blaze -- a dispatcher alerting Bryan Quilter,  Jason Pollard, and others aboard that there were victims inside.

“We knew we’d be going in,” both men agreed.

Poquonnock Bridge Fire Department Engine 32 arrived, and after being told by police where the victim was, Pollard and Quilter rushed in, risking their own lives to save someone else.  

“The smoke was so thick and black. I describe it like this: imagine the darkest night you can think of. Now you’re walking into a house you’ve never been in before in that darkness,” Quilter recalled. “Zero visibility. You go on training and adrenaline.”

Pollard and Quilter split up as they made their way down the hall as if blindfolded; Quilter into what would turn out to be the bathroom, Pollard into the bedroom.

“I had thermal imaging equipment but it was useless," Pollard said. "The smoke was that black and thick. I made my way around the room, swinging my arm and I felt it, her head. ‘I got (her),’ I yelled out to Bryan.”

Quilter would guide them all out of the house. “The moons were aligned that night,” Quilter said about the rescue.

Once outside and safe, but believing that the “tiny, very light” elderly woman was a child, the two firefighters went back in to find a parent, though no one else was in the house.

Soon disoriented in the escalating heat and smoke, they called a mayday - indicating they had become lost or trapped - and with two minutes of air left in their tanks, they waited for help. The Firefighter Assistance Search Team (FAST) from the Submarine Base Fire Department was “deployed, gained access to the building, found the firefighters, and guided them to safety,” according to Poquonnock Bridge Fire Department Chief Todd Paige.

Six months after the near deadly fire, Quilter and Pollard would be awarded the Medal of Valor at the fire house on Fort Hill Road; the second highest honor a firefighter can receive, and one of only a handful of times it’s ever been awarded at the fire house.

Pollard, 35, and his wife, Sarah, have two children, Paige, 8, and Griffin, 4. The family lives in Mystic.  A firefighter since 1992 when he began volunteering at Old Mystic, he first became a certified emergency medical technician. As a teen, he began running medical calls.

“It’s pretty much the only consistent thing I’ve done in my life. It’s my passion,” he said. “And it’s a lifestyle more than a job.”

It’s apparently in the blood: Pollard’s grandfather Arthur “Bud” Pollard was a firefighter for Poquonnock Bridge.

Of his Medal of Valor, he said, “I think (my grandfather) would be proud,” Pollard said.

Quilter, 33, a seasoned and senior firefighter, started his career at age 17 as a volunteer for the Gales Ferry Fire Department. He was born and raised in Ledyard, and graduated from Ledyard High School. He and his wife, Priscilla, are expecting a child in June, and are parents to soon-to-be 2-year-old Ayden.

Quilter said there are many reasons he chose firefighting as his life’s work. He said he enjoys “helping people and the camaraderie,” but he's also “not much for sitting in an office.”

“Each day is different from the next,” he said. “You never know what each day will bring.”

Of receiving the Medal of Valor, he said: “Its’ awfully humbling.”

Paige praised both men. Their work that day and every other day, he said,  “…are fine examples of the effort and commitment displayed by all of our firefighters on a  daily basis.”