WFD Presents Annual Eric Lacewell Award

At the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Banquet, Chief Steve Mason presented the second annual Eric Lacewell Award. This year's recipient was Lieutenant Josh Baltz! He received this award for his work in creating and maintaining the department's Crisis Response Facility Dog Program. This program was created as a means to offer more resources to help firefighters battle the stresses they face on a daily basis.

 

The department instituted this award in honor of one of our fallen firefighters who was well-known for his commitment to serving his community, Captain Eric D. Lacewell. Captain Lacewell began his career as a firefighter for WFD in 1987. From there, Eric worked his way up the ranks from Engineer to Captain and later served as president of the Wilmington Chapter of the Professional Black Firefighters Association. Captain Lacewell was a family man who loved the Lord, his community, and making the people he met feel like they’d known each other for years.

 

The Crisis Response Facility Dog program began in July 2021 as a one-year pilot program in partnership with paws4people. Today, the department has a dog on all three shifts.

 

Lt. Baltz has spent countless hours working to get a dog on each shift and to break the stigma and barriers to mental health assistance. He also recently underwent 50-plus hours of training to become a handler himself. We look forward to seeing more dogs as the years progress.