Saluting the Heroes : Deputies Honored for Risking Their Lives Trying to Save Others

Sheriff’s Deputies Tim Parker and Gean Okada risked their lives trying to save two small children from a burning house in South-Central Los Angeles.

Deputy Ronald Gilbert and four other sheriff’s officers pulled two men from a burning van 15 seconds before the vehicle exploded.

And Deputy Hagop Kuredjian saved the life of a Malibu woman who was hanging from a tree branch on a hillside over the Pacific Coast Highway on the Fourth of July.

Ceremony Held

On Monday, in a ceremony observed by 108 members of the latest graduating class of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, those officers were honored as heroes.

Introducing the officers at a ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Sheriff Sherman Block kept his remarks brief.

“Far too much attention is given to the anti-heroes,” Block said.

With that, Block presented the department’s highest award for heroism, the Medal of Valor, to Parker for his actions in May, 1988, when he tried unsuccessfully to save the lives of two children trapped in a burning house.

Parker and Okada, who was awarded a Silver Meritorious Conduct Medal, arrived at the house just before midnight and were told that children were trapped inside. Parker braved the flames repeatedly in an effort to find them, suffering second-degree burns on his arm and hand. Okada fought the fire from outside the house.

One child died of smoke inhalation during the fire, and the other died 10 days later. After receiving his award Monday, Parker said he still thinks of the children.

“You just have to deal with it (their deaths),” he said. “You do the best job you can and hope that it will produce the results you want.”

Also awarded the Medal of Valor were Deputy Gilbert and former Deputy Lewis Hicks, who resigned from the department last week.

Gilbert and Hicks were two of five officers who came across a fiery traffic accident in Lynwood last May, involving a van that had crashed into a bus bench.

Fighting off choking smoke and flames, Hicks and Gilbert dragged one passenger out of the van, while officers Hilbrand Goedhart and David Sauer rescued the driver.

Goedhart, Sauer and Deputy Allyn Martin, who had launched the rescue operation while off-duty, were honored Monday with Gold Meritorious Conduct Medals.

Also receiving a Gold Meritorious Conduct award was Kuredjian, who rescued a Malibu woman last July 4 after she almost fell to her death while watching a fireworks display.

Kuredjian responded to a 911 call after the woman had fallen down a steep incline over Pacific Coast Highway and found her hanging from a tree branch 150 feet over the highway.

Pulled to Safety

Kuredjian could not pull her up with his arms, so he made his way below the woman and coaxed her into dropping 5 feet, where he caught her and pulled her to safety.

A Silver Meritorious Conduct Medal was also awarded to Deputy Richard Wright for his efforts to rescue the occupants of a burning car in Riverside County in 1987.

Wright and a paramedic managed to drag one of four passengers from the burning car, but the passenger later died.

Commenting on the bravery of the officers at the ceremony was state Supreme Court Justice Malcolm Lucas, who noted that “some of the most successful police work” never requires taking a gun from a holster.

Borrowing a line from the “Hill Street Blues,” TV series, Lucas advised his audience: “Let’s be careful out there.”