Nelson presented with Carnegie Medal for bravery

by Beth Kraft

Dean Nelson doesn’t feel that his actions on the night of Feb. 8, 2014, were particularly exceptional, but a 111-year-old hero fund commission disagreed.

Nelson, a Mondovi resident, was named one of 20 Carnegie Medal recipients on March 31 for his brave actions on that cold winter night over a year ago. The Gilmanton home he shared with girlfriend Gretchen Anderson and her children caught fire very early that morning, forcing both Nelson and Anderson outside from their bedroom on the ground floor.

But Anderson’s five-year-old daughter, Molli Ellis, was still in her second-story bedroom, which could not be accessed from inside the home due to the rapidly-spreading smoke and flames.

Anderson climbed a ladder to the second floor and smashed out the window, but was unable to get inside due to heavy smoke. That’s when Nelson climbed the ladder and entered Molli’s bedroom, crawling through the inferno to retrieve Molli and escape the burning home.

“I really didn’t think at the time, I just kind of reacted,” says Nelson of rescuing Molli.

“I just think I did what anybody else would have done in my situation,” he added with a modest shrug and a grin.

With several of the Mondovi firefighters and EMTs who responded to the fire that night present, Nelson received his Carnegie Medal in a short ceremony at the MFD on Tuesday evening, May 19.

La Crosse County Sheriff’s Department deputy John Williams presented Nelson with the honor, having received a medal himself in 2012 for rescuing a man from drowning in the Mississippi River.

“I’m still kind of surprised and shocked to get it,” said Nelson. “It’s kind of a big thing...a little overwhelming.”

Williams, who now presents Carnegie Medals to recipients all across the region, noted how “split second” decisions can be life-saving. However, they can also end tragically for the rescuer.

“Some of the stories are just incredible,” said Williams of the medal winners.

Three of the 20 individuals in the group Nelson was honored with died while attempting to save others.

Fortunately Nelson’s story has a happy ending, but emergency workers who responded to the scene of the blaze at Nelson and Anderson’s Gilmanton home feared the worst that night.

The home was fully-engulfed when fire crews arrived, and “It was very cold—probably 30 below that night,” remembered Dennis Brion, who was the MFD Chief at the time.

“It was a harrowing experience, to say the least, but most everything was done before you even called 911,” Brion added.

Emergency workers agree it was difficult to believe at the time that people had just made it out of the home alive.

“It was very rewarding to walk in and have Molli and Dean breathing,” said Mondovi EMT Lisa Bishopp.

“This is why we do it is for [positive] results like this,” said firefighter Jim Rud of volunteering as a first responder. “If it’s not for results like this, pretty soon you’d have a hard time doing it anymore.”

“It’s the most wonderful thing in the world,” Bishopp agreed of seeing Dean and Molli survive.

“It was incredible to watch as the advanced medical care took place,” added Colin Severson, Chief Deputy of the Buffalo County Sheriff’s Department. “When I first arrived Molli’s condition was not good, but as the first responders arrived and the ambulances and paramedics arrived it was incredible to watch [the improvements].”

Severson then coordinated both helicopters used to transport both Dean and Molli to the Regions Burn Center in the Twin Cities after Eau Claire Fire EMTs determined advanced care was necessary.

“It could have been a lot worse,” says Nelson. “Seeing Molli in the hospital was the scariest part.”

The little girl had suffered smoke inhalation and burns on her face.

Anderson says her daughter was intubated for three days and was very disoriented when she regained consciousness.

Nelson sustained severe burns on his back and hands in addition to smoke inhalation. Fortunately the burns did not require skin grafts, but re-wrapping them twice a day was very time-consuming.

His injuries forced Nelson to take two months off work, and his lungs may have sustained permanent damage from the smoke inhalation.

“I think I’m a little more sensitive now to allergies,” he said.

“He gets sick all the time now,” Anderson added.

Over a year removed from the frightening experience in which they lost their home and all of their possessions, Nelson and Anderson have worked hard to get back on their feet.

“It’s sad, just realizing everything we lost,” Anderson said. “It’s been a struggle.”

They still own the vacant lot in Gilmanton where their house once stood but Nelson and Anderson chose to make a fresh start, purchasing a home in Mondovi.

“Thanks for everything you did that night,” Nelson said to the MFD members and EMTs who watched him receive his medal. “Things could have gone a totally different direction.”

The Carnegie Hero Fund awards the Carnegie Medal on a quarterly basis to individuals in the U.S. and Canada who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree saving or attempting to save the lives of others.

The group in which Nelson’s name was announced brings the total number of awards made since the Pittsburgh-based Fund’s inception in 1904 to nearly 10,000.

For more information about the Carnegie Hero Fund, please visit www.carnegiehero.org.