Rescue Workers

An Anne Arundel County rescue squad pulled one of its own men from the Chesapeake Bay yesterday about 45 minutes after the man jumped off the Bay Bridge in an apparent suicide.Timothy J. Hines, 31, of Woodland Beach in Edgewater, spent the last 24 hours of his life working an overtime shift for a co-worker at the West Annapolis fire station.He had slept at the station, as is the custom for a 24-hour shift, said Battalion Chief J. Gary Sheckells, spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.

WHO RESCUES the rescuers -- the emergency, police and fire service workers deeply affected by the death of a child or a horrific car accident?Dr. Jeffrey Mitchell, an Ellicott City resident, was concerned about this problem. In the early 1980s, he established the Critical Incident Stress Team to help public safety professionals deal with the tragic situations they confront every day.The team consists of peers and mental health professionals who encourage emergency workers to talk to each other about their experience with trauma.

A quick-acting Howard County fire captain who found himself in North Carolina during a tornado did what he was trained to do: Grab a sledgehammer and pry bar and start searching for people trapped under heavy wreckage. On assignment at a heavy vehicle rescue course in Sanford, N.C., last month, Capt. Michael Sharpe, 32, found himself at a flattened Lowe's Home Improvement store after a twister ripped through the town. It was a Saturday, and it was possible that customers or workers could be found under the a mound of collapsed steel, roofing members and cinderblock walls.

Western Maryland College officials will publicly thank fire and rescue personnel who worked to make sure a fire did not destroy Gill Gym on Dec. 31, 1996."

CHILDREN AT Longfellow Elementary School decided last month to forgo the ice cream, popcorn, cookies and other tempting snacks offered in the cafeteria - and instead donated their snack money to the Alexandria Firefighters' Tech Rescue Team, Station 206. This morning, representatives from the rescue team will visit the school to accept the donation and participate in a ceremony honoring their work at the Pentagon after the Sept. 11 attacks. "Longfellow's mascot is the eagle," said Nancy Harper, the school's counselor.

TONAWANDA, N.Y. -- A golden retriever rescue dog named Barney and his human partner took time out on their vacation from the Baltimore County Fire Department to help the Tonawanda police find the body of a drowned man in the Erie Barge Canal last week.Barney managed in a few minutes of work Wednesday to pick up the scent of the body lying on the canal bottom -- 20 feet down -- and started barking and snapping at the water.The victim, Richard Collard, 22, of Eggertsville, N.Y., had fallen from the back of a boat.

A 48-year-old Silver Spring man was rescued last night after being trapped for eight hours in a 14-foot-deep trench that collapsed on him in southern Howard County.Frank Giddings appeared unhurt when he was pulled from the trench about 7:30 p.m. He was flown by MedEvac helicopter to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore for tests and observation.Rescue workers, called to the accident scene at a house in the 9000 block of Dumhart Road about 11:30 a.m., found Mr. Giddings buried up to his shoulders in dirt in the caved-in trench.

A utility worker died in northeast Baltimore after he fell into a hole and became trapped Saturday afternoon, Baltimore City Fire Department officials said. The unidentified man in his late 20s was employed with a small, private utility company that was repairing a sewer line in the front yard of a home in the 1600 block of E. Cold Spring Lane, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, spokesman with the department. The man was attempting to climb out of the hole using a ladder when he fell back and became trapped in dirt up to his waist, Cartwright said.

In an annual celebration of civic pride, the Howard County Chamber of Commerce soon will praise the county's best educators, firefighters, rescuers and police officers for their distinguished work .The 17 people -- and one police dog -- will be honored at the chamber's 6th Annual Community Awards Night at 7 p.m. April 18 at the Turf Valley Hotel and Country Club in Ellicott City. Honorees will receive plaques, pins or certificates."It is the community pride event of the year," said Ashley D. Williams, a chamber spokeswoman.

The dramatic testimony in the Oklahoma City bombing trial underscores the need to counsel jurors who may be traumatized by such wrenching accounts, say those who have studied and worked with shellshocked juries."