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Firefighter Lauded For Rescue

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By ELLEN GEDALIUS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 18, 2008

TAMPA - In November, Dan Lombard and Ernest Garcia Sr. were fans at a Jesuit High School football game. They didn't know each other, but their lives were about to intersect in a powerful way.

As Lombard, an off-duty driver engineer for the Tampa Fire Department, left the game, he saw a car run through a stop sign. Lombard followed the car as it pulled off to the side of the road. That's when Lombard saw that the driver, Garcia, was having a seizure.

Lombard called 911 and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Paramedics arrived and took Garcia to the hospital.

The story has a happy ending: Garcia, who had suffered cardiac arrest, lived and was able to celebrate the holidays with his family. Lombard was honored Thursday as Tampa's firefighter of the quarter. The nomination came from Ernest Garcia Jr., Garcia's son, who is a Tampa firefighter.

"I was doing my job," Lombard told the city council and the firefighters gathered to honor him Thursday. "We're always on duty. What a surprise it was, and I'm so thankful I was able to help somebody, a brother."

Thursday was the first time Garcia and Lombard had met since Garcia's seizure.

"God, I can't say enough. He gave me my life," Garcia said after the presentation, sobbing softly.

Garcia's wife of 45 years, Adriana, said, "We are thankful we have firefighters that even off duty stop and care enough."

In other action, the city council unanimously approved a $1 million contract to start demolition on the existing Tampa Museum of Art building.

Groundbreaking on the new building is expected this spring.

Museum leaders say the plan is to build a 65,000-square-foot building at one time, rather than building part now and part in a few years, as had previously been discussed.

Gallery space will be scaled back and a rooftop terrace plan is on hold.

Councilman Tom Scott sought assurances from city administrators that businesses owned by minorities and women would be involved in the project.

The new location is at the northern edge of Curtis Hixon Park, near the site proposed for a new Children's Museum.

Reporter Ellen Gedalius can be reached at (813) 259-7679 or egedalius@tampatrib.com.

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