{"id":322327,"date":"2026-11-06T11:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/322327\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T11:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:20:12","slug":"spirit-of-courage-awards-honor-fire-departments-across-northeastern-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/322327\/","title":{"rendered":"Spirit of Courage Awards honor fire departments across northeastern Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/b5044149-4339-4459-a13a-501a5f284201_750x422-WRqPMS-300x169.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-image-1434973\" alt=\"\"   loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VIDEO: It was an evening to honor those who answer the call on Thursday in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Several fire departments from northeastern Pennsylvania were honored in Bethlehem at the annual Spirit of Courage Awards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cReally, makes it all worthwhile,\u201d says Chief Rich Chowanec, Dickson City Fire Department.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Dickson City Fire Department was one of the departments honored at the annual awards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The department accepted a chairman\u2019s award for its efforts responding to a raging fire at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Dickson City in February, when crews were forced to evacuate the building and guide more than 70 patients to safety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat was a career-defining fire, and just to receive the thank-you and the accolades, it\u2019s a nice thing,\u201d says Chowanec. \u201cLets the guys know that what we do is appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lehighton Fire Department was also recognized, along with Franklin Township Volunteer Fire Company, which were both called to a deadly fire in September of 2025 in which five people, including four children, passed away.<\/p>\n<p>WNEP-TV ABC 16 Scranton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VIDEO: It was an evening to honor those who answer the call on Thursday in Bethlehem. Several fire&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8338,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-322327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-mid-atlantic-region","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}