Bartlesville Fire Chief David Topping, right, presents the Fire Department’s Meritorious Service Award to firefighter Cody Nissen.
Bartlesville firefighter Cody Nissen was presented with the Fire Department’s Meritorious Service Award during Monday night’s City Council meeting for his role in helping to prevent a grass fire from destroying a family’s home and vehicles.
Ochelata Assistant Fire Chief Barry Campbell nominated Nissen for the award after observing Nissen’s off-duty actions on the morning of Sept. 8.
According to Campbell, Nissen was on his way home from the gym when he passed an unattended grass fire spreading towards a home, an SUV and a classic Trans Am. Clad only in shorts and a pair of Crocs, Nissen ran up to knock on the door of the house to check for occupants. When he determined the house was empty, he grabbed a rake and started knocking down the fire along its leading edge.
“I happened to pull up and see what was going on, and ran in to Ochelata to get a brush truck and have the department paged out,” Campbell wrote in his nomination. “When I arrived back on scene with the truck, Cody had single-handedly kept the fire off the house and vehicles with nothing more than a rake.
“In my professional opinion, if it wasn’t for the actions of off-duty firefighter Cody Nissen, a family would have lost at minimum two vehicles and possibly their home. One of the vehicles being an irreplaceable late model Trans Am that has been handed down through the family. Cody acted when he did not have the duty to do so. Because of his swift and selfless actions, a family is not suffering from great loss.”