Sedona Fire District’s Capt. Casey Carr admits that an award he received over the weekend brought some mixed feelings.
“It was humbling, I would say,” he said. “For any firefighter I know, awards for something like this — often times we kind of overlook them because it is what we do. It’s the reason we got into this profession. You do it because you want to serve and it’s not for the recognition.”
The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution recognized and presented its National Heroism Award to Carr on Saturday, April 10, at their general meeting in Prescott.
In attendance at the ceremony were SFD Chief Jon Trautwein, SFD Governing Board Chairman Dave Soto and board member Eugene McCarthy, a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.
“In some sense there is a piece of me that feels a little awkward [for getting the award],” Carr said. “In this particular instance, I just happened to be the one who rolled up on it first and there’s not a single soul who works here who wouldn’t have done the exact same thing.
“I would say that about most people. We just happened to be trained to deal with situations like that.”
The organization’s Heroism Award Commendation and Medal recognizes outstanding bravery and self-sacrifice in the face of imminent danger such as acts that involve great personal courage and risk to the recipient. It is intended primarily for acts by civilians, not in uniform, but does not exclude police, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and search and rescue crew members. It is not intended to recognize acts that would have been covered in the performance of one’s normal duty, nor by medals for valor by the armed forces, information provided by SFD states.
“Capt. Casey Carr’s actions were exemplary and heroic,” Trautwein said. “He is a great example of service and commitment to all of us and he deserves our respect and honor.”
On May 31, while off duty and driving home to Prescott at around 8:15 a.m., Carr came upon a head-on collision between a large pickup and an Acura involving eight people on State Route 169 just outside of Dewey-Humboldt. Both Carr and a female driver of another vehicle stopped, but because cell phone coverage is limited near the location of the accident, neither were able to reach 911. So, Carr called SFD’s dispatch, which forwarded his call to the Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority.
“It was obvious that it was a very severe accident,” he recalled. “I let them [CAFMA dispatch] know who I was and I gave them an initial report of what I saw and ordered up two medical helicopters.”
In the pickup, there were four injured individuals, all in critical condition, he said. In the Acura, the front two occupants were deceased and that’s when he saw two car seats in the backseat.
“At first I was happy to not see kids in them but after doing a walk-around of the vehicle, the reason I didn’t see them was because the children were folded over in their restraints.
“I assessed them and one did not have a pulse but the other one did. The back window was blown out so I crawled up on the trunk, cut the seat belts off the kids and pulled both of them out and got them on the trunk.”
Carr said that while he has been on many fatal car accidents during his long career, this was the worst that he could remember.
Making matters worse, unlike other accidents, he did not have a crew and equipment to attend to the injured.
“This was overwhelmingly difficult,” he said. “Initially I went into triage mode, which is normal. Then when I began removing victims, that’s when it became overwhelming for me. I had these two kids who needed CPR and intervention quickly. I started walking toward my pickup [carrying both] and decided I need to start CPR in the bed of the truck.”
Because of where the accident occurred, Carr said as he reached his truck he could see an ambulance heading their way. The crews in the ambulance noticed his SFD T-shirt and asked that he help one of the crew members assist with the children while the other EMT went to assess the passengers of the pickup.
Despite their efforts, neither of the children survived.
Within 15 minutes, additional fire and ambulance crews arrived at the accident. Carr remained on scene to assist.
Three of the four passengers of the pickup were flown out by helicopter.
According to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the four killed in the crash were a 35-year-old Amanda Colvin, the 16-year-old boy whose name was not released to the media and Colvin’s two sons, Jaxon Holland, 5 and Ryder Holland, 7. All were from Prescott Valley.
DPS also reported immediately following the accident that the sedan was traveling southbound when it veered left of center and crashed into the pickup, which was in the northbound lane.
“From what I remember, I did not see any signs of braking,” Carr said. “So you can image the impact without any braking.”
