Crime & Safety

Oak Lawn Lions Club Honors Top Cop and Firefighter

Oak Lawn's finest are honored at awards dinner. "Firefighter of the Year" delivers morale-boosting speech.

The Oak Lawn Lions Club honored the village’s top police officer and firefighter at the club’s 39th Annual Law and Order Dinner on Tuesday that included Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart as the guest speaker.

The “Police/Firefighter of the Year” award was launched in 1972. Local Lions wanted to recognize the village’s first responders who worked tirelessly to help neighbors recover from the tornado that decimated Oak Lawn five years earlier.

Patrol Officer Pete Hennessy of the Oak Lawn Police Department, and Lt. Phil Bruzan, of the Oak Lawn Fire Department, received honors as the village’s top cop and top firefighter, respectively, for 2010-11.

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“As a Lions Club, we feel it’s important to recognize all the positive things that the fire department and police department do as a whole in serving the community,” said Lions Club member Skip Pearson, chair of the Law and Order Dinner.

The year’s top cop and firefighter candidates are nominated by their peers, and the winners are selected by an awards committee from both departments.

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Surrounded by family, friends and colleagues, Hennessy and Bruzan were praised by their bosses from the podium at the Hilton Oak Lawn.

Oak Lawn Police Chief Bill Villanova recalled a domestic disturbance call in 2006, when Hennessy and two fellow officers dashed into a burning house to save a sleeping baby.

“The wife had sustained a savage beating at the hands of her husband the day before,” Villanova said. “She returned home the next day only to find her husband in the house where he was prohibited.”

The woman fled from the house and called police. Before police arrived, her husband had fled as well. As Hennessy’s partner spoke to the woman, other adult family members came pouring out of the house shouting that it was on fire.

After learning that a baby was asleep inside the burning house, “Pete, along with two other officers, located the baby inside the smoke-filled house and successfully saved the baby.”

Hennessy was appointed field training officer, which Villanova said was one of the most important positions in the police force.

“As a field training officer, he sets a tone for new recruits on operations of the Oak Lawn Police Department and (on) how to conduct themselves safely when they come into contact with the public,” the police chief said.

Villanova also praised Hennessy’s five years of service as a DARE instructor in Oak Lawn’s elementary schools and the patrol officer’s talents as an instructor.

Hennessy was clearly moved by the applause of his fellow officers lined up against the back wall of the ballroom where the dinner was being held.

“This type of award is a significant marker in my career,” Hennessy said. “It’s a message to me that my work and dedication to my job as a patrol officer have been noticed and approved of.”

Thanking his wife, children and colleagues for the honor, Hennessy said he was encouraged by the affirmation of his work.

Oak Lawn Fire Chief George Sheets held up a picture of Bruzan and joked about the eager, energetic rookie who joined the department in 1990.

“Some of you also said a snot-nosed kid,” Sheets said. “I got his photo here, and if you look closely, his nose was running a little.”

Getting serious, Sheets recounted Bruzan’s fast rise through the rank and file, from paramedic to engineer to his current rank of lieutenant.

“Phil has had many letters of recognition from citizens as well as a number of commendations from former fire chiefs who issued commendations to Phil for acts of heroism,” Sheets said.

Sheets praised Bruzan and his crew for their actions during the blizzard in early February. Oak Lawn firefighters plowed pathways at the height of the blizzard, on Feb. 2, and responded to emergency calls, including an Oak Lawn woman who was in labor.

“Under extreme conditions, our crews that day under Lt. Phil performed with exemplary courage and professionalism,” Sheets said. “Our crews literally had to plow their way to the woman’s house. It was a difficult task but they were able to get the patient in an ambulance and transported to Christ Medical Center.”

The woman, who gave birth to a baby girl, and her husband, wrote a letter thanking Sheets and in particular recognized Bruzan’s leadership.

Bruzan gave a morale-boosting speech to fellow firefighters, who in recent years have fallen under criticism for costly civil rights litigation and overtime cost overruns. (See the accompanying video.)

“I’ve seen the Oak Lawn Fire Department go from 102 firefighters in 1991, when we ran just over 5,000 calls, down to our current staff of about 80 firefighters last year when we ran nearly 8,000 calls,” Bruzan said. “I’ve seen our equipment and vehicles sold to save money. I’ve seen Oak Lawn firefighters make concessions in pay and benefits in an effort to keep a balanced village budget.

“As your firefighters, simply all we ask is that we be treated with fairness and honesty by those in power,” Bruzan continued. “We are not politicians, we are firefighters. We don’t do doublespeak; we are firefighters. And we don’t lie; we’re firefighters.”


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