A citizen who acted quickly to help save a life, and another who took a risk to provide heavy machinery support during a barn fire, have received Civilian Awards from North Branford Fire Department.

Fire Chief William Seward III and Board of Fire Commissioners chairman Joe Civitello presented the awards at the Feb. 20 Town Council meeting. The recognition was based on the recommendations made to the board for the civilian's actions at fire-related incidents, said Seward.

"It's not that often that we get to recognize civilians in our community for the work that they do," Seward noted.

Dino Esposito received a public service commendation for "outstanding cooperation, teamwork and personal actions" to help quell an early morning large structure fire which broke out at Augur's barn at 106 Mill Road on Dec. 13, 2017.

"In order to get at the seat of the fire we really had to deconstruct the burning structure; so with that we had cooperation from the property owner, and Mr. Dino Esposito volunteered to operate construction equipment on the property while we extinguished the fire, and he did so at his own personal risk," said Seward.

The second incident involving citizen's actions took place during the evening of January 6 on property at Rose's Orchards, 33 Branford Road.

"We found an injured person, actually Tyler Rose's brother, had been involved in a snowmobile accident," said Seward. "And as a direct result of Tyler's actions in stopping the bleed, I have to say that he probably saved his brother's life. That's pretty substantial," said Seward.

Rose was presented with a public service commendation for "outstanding cooperation, teamwork and lifesaving actions...thereby upholding the traditions of the fire service."