On June 2, New York City Fire Department Lieutenant Michael Conboy of Montgomery received the Dr. Harry M. Archer Award at the FDNY Metal Day. This award is given every three years to a New York City Fire Department (FDNY) firefighter who displays a valiant action under extreme personal risk.

In addition to his work for the FDNY, Conboy also contributed locally as a firefighter in the Montgomery Volunteer Fire Department.

“He did a good job training the department,” said Montgomery Fire Chief Robert Reynolds Jr.

On December 17, 2017, Rescue 3 was special-called to Bronx Box 2596 for a reported structure fire with people trapped. Working this night tour was veteran officer Lieutenant Michael (Mickey) Conboy. Rescue 3 arrived on-scene quickly.

Lieutenant Conboy approached the fire building, observing heavy fire blowing up over the roof from an open three-foot square light shaft approximately 20 feet back on the exposure #2 side. He reported to Battalion Chief Lawrence Hyland, Battalion 3, who was in front of the building. The chief told the lieutenant to have his members assist with searching the fire building and check exposure #4 for extension. Unable to get to the second floor from the front door, Lieutenant Conboy ordered the inside team to attempt entry via a portable ladder up to the front porch roof and the outside team to check the exposure.

Lieutenant Conboy crawled through the front doorway, which had heavy, black smoke venting out over his head. He crawled past Engine 82 members, who still were waiting for water in their hoseline so they could make a push into the two rooms now fully involved in fire and venting into the first-floor hallway. Lieutenant Conboy met Ladder 31’s extinguisher firefighter in the hallway at the base of the stairs, where he was attempting to keep the fire back in order to protect his officer, Lieutenant Jerald Perillo, and forcible entry member, Firefighter Lucas Niskanen, as they were coming down the stairs with an unconscious woman.

Lieutenant Conboy asked Lieutenant Perillo if he had anyone else searching the second floor and was told no. Knowing that the second-due ladder was not yet on-scene, Lieutenant Conboy climbed up the stairs through blistering heat to reach the second-floor hallway. At the top of the stairs, he got on his stomach and began his search into the front bedroom. He found Ladder 31’s tools, which indicated that their search stopped there when they removed the victim. Searching to his right, Lieutenant Conboy looked up and saw fire rolling over his head. Crawling along the wall, he found a small child, lying unconscious, face up on the floor under a window. The curtains and drapes had dropped down on the child and were on fire, as were the boy’s pants, so he placed him on a bed away from the window and patted the flames out. He then crawled out of the room with the child and handed him off to another firefighter in the hallway, instructing him to bring the child to EMS personnel in the street.

With time running out for any other victims, Lieutenant Conboy returned to the bedroom to complete his search. Fire was blowing into the bedroom from the shaft. This time, he searched to his left, where he found a leg between a bed and the front wall. Pushing the bed away from the wall, Lieutenant Conboy found an unconscious adult male lying on the floor. Trying to free the man, the Lieutenant told Firefighter Brian Browne, Rescue 3, to remove a door from an adjoining bedroom and place it over the window to slow the spread of fire blowing into the room from the air/light shaft, as there still was no hoseline stretched to the second floor. Under the extreme heat of the fire, Lieutenant Conboy mustered all his strength and dragged the man out of the bedroom toward the hallway. When he got the unconscious male to the hallway, he handed the man off to another firefighter for removal to the street and EMS members.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio thanked the award recipients for their heroic acts and commended them for how they carry themselves day in and day out.

“We celebrate today 70 outstanding individuals,” he said. “70 who are the best of us, the best of the FDNY, the best of New York City. Everyone that we celebrate today has an extraordinary story. Everyone made a decision to save lives and puts that decision into action every day. We are grateful to every one of you for what you do. Not just the acts of heroism that we celebrate here today but what you do every day.”

FDNY Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro was also proud of each medal recipients’ selfless acts.

“As I listen to the many acts of valor recounted on medal day, I couldn’t be prouder of our members,” he said. “Heroically, you advance forward through intense heat and smoke. You respond to each call that comes your way and provide outstanding medical care. No matter the dangers to yourself, you always go to help.”