Rick O’Mahony of Murrysville answered his first emergency call in 1964.
“You can do the math,” he said. “I’ve been in it ever since.”
O’Mahony was named the Murrysville Volunteer of the Year at Wednesday’s council meeting.
He is a longtime paramedic, firefighter with Murrysville Volunteer Fire Company No. 1, fire rescue/first aid instructor, and secretary for the Murrysville-Export Emergency Management Agency.
O’Mahony said emergency services have come a long way since the days when he would take an ambulance home with him on weekends.
“I used to get the ambulance every Friday night,” he said. “I’d turn it back into another group on Monday morning.”
O’Mahony said first responders “do so much that a lot of citizens take for granted.”
“The people who are there really need your support and to some degree, a show of gratitude that they’re there,” he said. “They’re committed to jumping in when there’s a bad situation.”
O’Mahony has been a member of the Murrysville-Export Emergency Management Agency since its inception. He thanked his fellow first responders and municipal officials.
“Our fire company and the others here work with council and keep our equipment in shape, but it takes a lot of effort,” he said.
