On Thursday, October 13 at the Seattle Fire Department Awards Ceremony, Jared Carlson (Seattle Mountain Rescue), Guy Mansfield (Everett Mountain Rescue), and Lauren Heitmann (King County SAR) were honored for their work on the search for Deputy Fire Chief Jay Schreckengost last November. Deputy Ellis Nale from Kittitas County was also honored. 

The 12-day search for Chief Schreckengost was carried out in bad weather and in hazardous terrain, and was supported by hundreds of volunteers, including members of all five regional mountain rescue teams. Chief Schreckengost was located on the last day of the protracted search, and it was determined that he had suffered a fatal fall even before formal searching was started. See our post: A Somber Search in November. https://suzanneelshult.com/a-somber-search-in-november-2/

Upon receiving this Distinguished Service Award, Guy’s comments were: “Every day we planned assignments in hazardous terrain. And every day my teammates in Everett Mountain Rescue and other mountain rescue teams accepted those assignments without hesitation. Their training, experience, and efforts allowed us to locate Chief Schreckengost and return him to his family.”

Jared, Guy, and Lauren are also members of the Washington State SAR Planning Unit, and were supported on site by other members of that team.