From the Elkville Ashes, a Proud Moment

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Maybe once in a lifetime--if then--you get a letter like the one the City of Du Quoin received last week.

The letter comes from Chief of Police Kenton J. Schafer, Mayor Lance Bedar and Brett Cobin, public safety commissioner for the Village of Elkville.

The letter was authored in the aftermath of the March 6, 2009 fire that claimed the lives of downtown apartment residents Zakia Davis, 31, and daughter Ashanti, age 6.

The letter reads:

City of Du Quoin

Office of the Mayor

28 South Washington Street

Du Quoin, Illinois 62832

March 13, 2009

Dear Mayor Rednour,

We wanted to take a moment to express our gratitude to your fire department and specifically the following firefighters: Captain Joe Riggio, firefighter Adam Hill, firefighter Jered Kremer, firefighter Chris Hopkins and firefighter Gene Skinner. We are certain at this point you may have heard several media reports referencing the fatal fire that our community suffered during the early morning hours of March 6, 2009.

As we are sure you are aware, your department provided much needed mutual aid for our community. We want to share with you the exemplary service specifically provided by firefighter Adam hill and firefighter Jered Kremer.

When your department arrived on scene, firefighter Hill and firefighter Kremer quickly gathered information about the layout of the apartment that was ablaze, they proceeded inside the apartment--with no fire hose--and conducted an initial search for the victims that were trapped.

Firefighter Hill located and removed a 6-year-old girl from the building. Although unfortunately the victim did not survive, the brave acts of these men allowed the victim an attempt for resuscitation.

These men entered this building with little information as to the layout of the structure and what hazards may have existed. While we realize that these actions may seem "routine" for some firefighters, we believe this is an exception because these men put their lives on the line not for their own community, but for a neighboring community. It would have been nearly impossible for a small community to provide this level of quality service during an incident of this magnitude without the assistance of your fire department.

Please let these men know that we feel they are not only a credit to their community, but to public service as a whole.