Police officers awarded for lifesaving efforts

Spokane police officers Zachary Dahle, Gordon Ennis and Jaime Pavlischak knew Tuesday’s 5 p.m. roll call was going to be unusual when their relatives showed up with cameras.

Acting Chief Jim Nicks used the daily start-of-shift briefing to confer the department’s Lifesaving Award on the officer who rescued several people from a burning building and officers who pulled a suicidal man out of the Spokane River.

The award is for saving a life under “unusual or extraordinary circumstances,” Nicks said.

Officer Frank Erhart, who wasn’t able to attend the ceremony, will get his award later. He had a role in both incidents but was honored for the river rescue in January.

Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch and City Council President Joe Shogan joined Nicks in praising the officers.

“We just say thank you,” Lynch said. “Thank you every day for your courage and your professionalism and your public service. We thank you when you go above and beyond the call of duty, which happens in this department quite frequently.”

As Shogan put it, “There really is no higher calling than to be a lifesaver.”

Dahle was nearing the end of his shift on March 31 when he saw smoke coming from an apartment building at 1923 W. Broadway Ave. about 2:10 a.m. He called the Fire Department and began pounding on doors inside the 2 1/2-story converted house to alert the sleeping residents.

With help from Erhart and Officers Paul Gorman, Derek Bishop and Scott Haney, Dahle got all the occupants — six adults and an undetermined number of children — out of the building before firefighters arrived.

Fire officials said at the time that the officers probably saved the residents’ lives.

The building had no smoke detectors, and paint was melting off the walls of one smoke-filled apartment when the occupants were evacuated. A corner of the building burst into flames just after everyone got out.

Nicks said he checked with the other officers involved in the rescue and was told that Dahle was primarily responsible.

Ennis, Pavlischak and Erhart were honored for saving a Spokane man who jumped off the Monroe Street Bridge on Jan. 24.

“The conditions surrounding this rescue were horrific,” Nicks said.

Dense fog limited visibility to about 20 yards. The river was running high and fast and was considered so dangerous that the Fire Department water rescue team was ordered not to launch its boat, Nicks said.

The man was swept to the vicinity of the Sans Souci mobile home park at the west end of Boone Avenue before he was rescued.

Police fanned out along the river, with Ennis and Erhart going to the Sans Souci area on the east bank of the river, site of the former Natatorium amusement park. Nicks said Erhart and Ennis could hear the man’s faint cries coming from the opposite bank — where Pavlischak had gone.

The two officers on the east bank guided Pavlischak to the man’s location. Pavlischak ran about a quarter-mile down a narrow trail to reach him.

“Should (Pavlischak) have fallen, he could easily have ended up in the water himself,” Nicks said.