Newsmaker: Rockland firefighter Michael Tracy will receive his second honor from the state
Michael Tracey #MichaelTracey
Name: Michael Tracy
Age: 46
Hometown: Weymouth
In the news: Tracy will be honored by the state for the second time after saving a woman from a burning housing complex.
Now you know: Tracy is known to be a prankster in the Rockland Fire Department.
His story: Rockland Firefighter Michael Tracy was honored by the state 15 years ago for saving a woman from a burning building, but he never thought much of it. He thought of it as his duty, just another day at the office.
But this time, he plans to accept the honor with pride.
“I’m actually embracing it this time,” Tracy said. “The first time I got it I was just like ‘Yeah, whatever. This is what I’m supposed to do.’ But I don’t think enough of us recognize it enough, that when we actually do get in a situation that needs to be recognized that we should be proud of it. And we should accept it for what it is — an honor.”
Tracy is set to receive that honor for a second time for his actions in a 20 East Water St. fire just after midnight on Jan. 2, 2020. When he arrived at the scene, he put on his gear and entered the three-story housing complex, leading the hose to the second-floor fire with Capt. Jason Fricker. As Fricker began to water a room, Tracy heard a “faint noise” and decided to follow it.
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Through thick black smoke and unable to see, he turned a corner and began to ascend to the third floor, where he found the body of an unconscious woman on the stairs. Tracy grabbed the woman and Fricker helped lead him downstairs to bring her to safety. By the time Tracy went back in to see if there were more people on the third floor, the heat became unbearable and Chief Scott Duffey called for an evacuation.
“We had gotten overtaken by that fire pretty much right at the time I was going by [Fricker] with the woman downstairs,” Tracy said. “That was quite an eye opening surprise when we got [to the back of the building] because we realized that both of those apartments were pretty much now fully involved in heavy, heavy fire.”
Growing up, Tracy wanted to become an airline pilot and went to college to pursue that passion. However, he found his path shifting when he met college friends who were volunteer firefighters and was surrounded by first responder customers at his uncle’s Doughboy Police and Fire Supply store.
Tracy started out in Emergency Medical Services in 1993, and began his firefighting career as a call firefighter in Hanson in 1996. He started full time at the Rockland Fire Department in April 2000.
“I love the job,” Tracy said. “It is rewarding, on a daily basis, down to the simple things like when we go to an elderly person’s house and they can’t reach the smoke detector on a nine foot ceiling and we change the battery for them. … To the medical patient that gets better by the time we get into the hospital. And then, ultimately to what happened in January, is that person that probably never would have woken up, has that second chance.”
Tracy, Fricker and Richard Furlong Sr. will receive awards for their work at the state’s next Firefighter of the Year awards, which has yet to be scheduled.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Newsmaker: Rockland firefighter Michael Tracy will receive his second honor from the state