The Livermore Falls Police Department received an Excellence in Service Award on Tuesday night. Some full-time and reserve officers were on hand for the presentation while some were called away to assist at a fire. From left are officers Brock Caton, Bob Samson, Sgt. Vernon Stevens who also received a Meritorious Service Award, Town Manager Stephen Gould, Lt. Joseph Sage, James Phillips and Steve Allen. Missing from the photo are Chief Ernest Steward Jr., Troy Reid, Stephen E. Gould, Walter Bachelder, Darian Nadeau, Dylan Rider, Chris Fletcher, Erik Johnson and Bradley Gallant. (Heidi Sage Photo)
LIVERMORE FALLS — The Police Department was recognized Tuesday night with an Excellence in Service Award and Sgt. Vernon Stevens was presented a Meritorious Service Award.
Selectmen unanimously voted in June to recognize Stevens and the department under the Spirit of America program for their work.
Livermore Falls Police Sgt. Vernon Stevens, left, was recognized Tuesday with a Meritorious Service Award for his actions to save two boys during a fatal fire on June 12 in Livermore Falls. Town Manager Stephen Gould, who has been a reserve officer for the department for years, stands next to him. The Police Department was also recognized for what they do daily. (Heidi Sage photo)
Stevens coaxed two boys ages 11 and 13 to go out a third-floor window and onto a second-floor bay window roof to escape their burning home June 12 on Main Street. Stevens then had the boys jump onto the first-floor entryway roof.
Stevens broke the 13-year-old’s fall with his body. The boys’ father, Robert Mosher, tried to catch his youngest son but the child landed partly on him and partly on the ground.
Both boys received non-life threatening injuries. Stevens received scrapes and abrasions.
“I was doing my job,” Stevens said Thursday. “I’m not looking for recognition. That is not why I do the job.”
The sad thing is they lost a family member, he said.
The real story is the boys had the courage to jump, he said.
Stevens, 54, has been in law enforcement for 29 years.
Town Manager Stephen Gould said Stevens was recognized for his bravery and instinct to talk the boys onto the roof and to use his body to cushion the fall of one of them.
“He talked them out onto the roof,” he said.
The award to the Police Department is a thank-you for everything they do on a daily basis, Gould said.
Every time they get into the cruiser to head out on a call they see something new, he said. A lot of people don’t know what police are dealing with, he said, including suicides, assaults, domestic violence, drug overdoses and burglaries.
Gould has been a reserve officer for the department for years.
The department and Stevens will be recognized at a Spirit of America Award ceremony in Androscoggin County in October, Gould said.
Tuesday’s presentation was done at the gazebo during the July 3 activities. Some police and the Fire Rescue Department were called away to a structure fire on Park Street.
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