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| Kingsburg resident honored for helping victims, families |
| By Amy D. Fienen
It was the kind of call public servants dread - a call that a child was in trouble. When 9-year-old Yshema Snowden of Fresno fell into a canal last summer, Tony Escobedo, a Kingsburg resident and Fresno Fire Department Battalion Chief, was called to command the rescue and recovery operation. Rescuers were unable to bring Snowden out of the canal alive, but Escobedo was there to make sure her family was taken care of and that the impact of losing their daughter was minimized as much as possible. It was for his willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty that Escobedo is being recognized by the Trauma Intervention Program of Fresno County with its Hero Award during the Oct. 12 Salute to On-Scene Heroes fundraiser. Trauma Intervention Program is made up of local volunteers who are on-call 24 hours a day, ready to respond immediately to the scene when paged by fire, police or a hospital. Their main job is to provide emotional support to families who are unexpectedly in crisis. After an accident, a Trauma Intervention Program volunteer is often at the hospital with the injured victim before their family members arrive. "We try to avoid that second injury of being alone," said Sharon Biswell, past manager of Trauma Intervention Program. Biswell said that when one of their volunteers was called to the canal drowning, Escobedo was instrumental in helping to make the victim's family as comfortable as possible. "Tony's always been a huge supporter of TIP and calls us to the scene," Biswell said. "He's been a hero in many ways." Escobedo began his career as a paramedic in Los Angeles in 1988. Seventeen years ago, he and his wife Delores moved to Kingsburg, where he trained as a firefighter. He was hired as a firefighter by the City of Fresno in 1995, and was one of few fire department members ever to be promoted to rank of captain from the rank of firefighter. He founded the Fresno Fire Explorer Youth Program and is the task force leader for the department's Regional Task Force Five Search and Rescue Team. Last year, he was promoted to battalion chief. As the task force leader for the search and rescue team. Escobedo was in charge of the scene after receiving a drowning call. When her younger brother dropped his basketball into a canal, Snowden went after it, and ended up in the canal. When Escobedo arrived at the scene, he had to see that the water level in the canal was lowered, and he secured a helicopter from Palo Alto to search for the victim from overhead with its thermal imaging camera. He also called for Support One, a bus that was designed to give families in crisis a place to be alone and decompress while at the scene. The bus allowed the family to stay cool, get away from television crews, listen to radio calls from the rescue workers, and be briefed on the rescue efforts. Every 30 minutes, Escobedo took Snowden's mother outside to observe the rescuers efforts. "If you include the family in the rescue and recovery, it helps them recover quicker and bring closure to their loss," Escobedo said. "I told her, 'I will not leave, I will not sleep until I find your daughter.'" Throughout the hours they spent waiting for word, Escobedo and the girl's mother formed a special bond. When he saw her holding a bible, he asked if he could share a verse with her. Then he went on to read Isaiah 41:10, which says, "Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and protect you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." The search for Snowden began on Teusday afternoon and lasted 20 hours, untill 11:25 a.m. the following day. When Escobedo received word that Snowden's body had been spotted by rescuers combing the banks of the canal, he told divers to treat her like a live victim, not a drowning victim. The mom insisted that Escobedo be the one to accompany her to the recovery site. "I was going to do whatever I could to lower the visual impact when the mom was reunited with her daughter," he said. "They treated her with respect and dignity." The rescuers sat Snowden on a stretcher and covered her with a blanket so that she appeared to be sleeping. "The mom hugged her daughter, and she hugged me," Escobedo said. " I still have the basketball that she went after." Escobedo and an engine company attended Snowden's funeral. Because all the workers at the scene were so devasted by the incident, they looked into having warning signs put up near canals, Escobedo said that the irrigation district wouldn't do it, so the fire department took the job upon themselves, using stencils to make their own signs. "We put those warning signs up wherever we could, especially around schools," Escobedo said. As the father of two boys - both of whom are following in their fathers footsteps - Escobedo said that calls involving children always make his heart beat a little quicker. He said that the loss of the little girl that he never met was one of the several incidents he has experienced during his career that works on his soul. The Trauma Intervention Program dinner honoring Escobedo and other on-scene responders will be held Oct. 12 at Tornino's in Fresno. The $50 per person donation includes a steak dinner, awards ceremony and silent auction. Anyone interested in attending should call (***)***-**** by Oct. 5 to make a reservation. |
| ***Printed on October 3, 2007 |
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