Photograph by Paul Myers

Firefighter Matt Meadors was selected as the Saratoga Fire District's Wilbur William Worden Award winner for 2001 by his fellow firefighters.




Soft-spoken Meadors named winner of Worden Award for 2001

By Oakley Brooks

In a year that shook firefighters across the country and brought them closer together, Saratoga's finest firefighter says his "extended family" of fellow firefighters at the local station is the biggest reason he's in the business.

"I've got 24 immediate sisters and brothers here and thousands across the country," Matt Meadors said.

Meadors, who plays the quiet younger brother in the fire station family, was recently selected by his fellow firefighters as the Wilbur William Worden Award winner for 2001. The Worden Award is the department's highest honor.

It's named after the late Capt. W.W. Worden, a native Saratogan who held every rank in the department and was active in the community.

Meadors, 29, joined the Saratoga department six years ago after a friend nudged him into some firefighting classes at Mission College.

A Campbell native, he has risen from an apprentice to a full-time firefighter and was expecting certification as a paramedic sometime in March.

Saratoga Capt. Beau Rahn said Meadors' pursuit of his paramedic license and his extra effort around the station serving on various safety committees and helping with odd jobs earned him the respect of his station mates.

"Not everyone has the initiative to try to improve," Rahn said. "Most of us will do extra projects. Some people just shine more than others."

Paramedic training is a grueling process that includes 240 hours in an emergency room and at least 480 hours in an ambulance with a mentor breathing down one's neck. Meadors slipped up recently responding to a light head injury, and his mentor elbowed him out of the way.

"It's pretty humbling," he said. "But that's somebody's life in your hands if you mess it up."

With medical incidents representing more than 90 percent of the Saratoga Fire District's calls, the district has been working recently to put at least one firefighter with paramedic skills on both of its first-response engines.

Still, even with paramedic status, the mild-mannered Meadors will remain low on the totem pole at the Saratoga Avenue firehouse.

He usually arrives at 6:30 a.m. for his 8 a.m. shift, puts on the coffee and raises the flags above the station. Then he sets to mopping the floor and cleaning out the bathrooms. Firefighters also help the truck engineers with vehicle maintenance.

"There's definitely a pecking order," Rahn said.

But Meadors spends a big chunk of his time away from the station--Saratoga firefighters work three 24-hour shifts in a given nine-day period. He works as a plumber in the South Bay, and often hits local slopes to mountain bike or snowboard. Meadors and others on the Saratoga crew recently got away for a few days in the Colorado snow while attending an emergency medical services convention.

In September, Meadors is set to marry fiancée Niko Hartley, and he said the two plan to buy a house and settle in San Jose.

This fall's World Trade Towers disaster gave Meadors some pause.

"It was tough," he said. "I often wonder how I would have reacted in a situation like that. Nobody ever knows."

But he's determined to stay with firefighting.

"I don't want to do anything else," Meadors said.

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