SPRINGFIELD: Teen honored posthumously

By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
SRINGFIELD — A little over a year after he died trying to save his mother from their burning home at the age of 14, the late Robert Ferrell has been formally recognized for his effort.
    On April 2, he joined 19 others to receive Carnegie Medals from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission based in Pittsburgh, Pa.
    “We realize the scope of the tragedy that befell the Ferrell family last year,“ said commission Executive Director Walter F. Rutkowski. “But we trust that family members can be heartened by society’s pausing to note of Robert’s sacrifice.
    “He was obviously committed to his family, and his last actions should not be forgotten.“
    On Feb. 27, 2008, a four-alarm fire on Monmouth Road took the lives of Robert and his mother, Michelle Ferrell, 53. Four siblings escaped the blaze with the aid of an early-morning commuter, who saw smoke coming from the 2.5-story home in the Jobstown section of Springfield and stopped to help.
    That man, 51-year-old Michael Davison of Fallsington, Pa., has said he actually got Robert out of the building, but the boy insisted on going back in to save his mother.
    But the fire was too intense, and firefighters found the two dead of smoke inhalation on the second floor of the house.
    Soon after, the community took up the cause, raising thousands of dollars for the education of James Ferrell, then 15 and the youngest surviving sibling.
    The Carnegie Medals are bestowed by a 21-person commission, which chooses the awardees from submissions of heroic acts in the U.S. or Canada.
    The bronze medal was sent to James, who was also the recipient of a $5,000 grant from the Carnegie commission, and the family is now eligible to receive reimbursement for funeral expenses.
    Robert’s medal was one of five awarded posthumously in this round of awards, three of them to teenagers, Mr. Rutkowski said.
    Since its inception in 1904, the commission has awarded more than 9,000 medals, about 20 percent of them posthumous, from over 80,000 entries.