Everett DPW workers who rushed into burning home receive Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery
Two Everett Department of Public Works employees who rushed into a burning home to help save 14 people were awarded the Madeline "Amy" Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery on Thursday.
The award is given each year at the Massachusetts State House on September 11.
The fire broke out on July 3, 2024 as Jesse Winocour and Jason Papa were working on Hancock Street. The men smelled smoke, then saw flames ripping through an apartment building, and rushed in. They kicked in doors to help get people out of their apartments.
When they got to the third floor, the men found a young girl was unconscious and trapped by the fire. Winocour and Papa were unable to reach her themselves, so they alerted a firefighter who saved her. Everyone in the house survived.
"Jesse and Jason, you saved lives that day. In great peril to your own," said Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll while presenting the award. "You showed that the spirit of unity and humanity is alive and well in Massachusetts."
Winocour and Papa accepted the award while wearing their DPW uniforms. Driscoll noted that the men came to the ceremony straight from their shifts Thursday.
Madeline "Amy" Sweeney of Acton, Massachusetts was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11. She contacted the airline's ground crew on September 11, 2001, to provide crucial information about the hijackers just minutes before the terrorists crashed the plane into the north tower of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.