The Montecito Fire Department has honored two of their own with the Medal of Valor in a special ceremony that took place Tuesday night.
Chief Chip Hickman presented the awards to Wildland Specialist Maeve Juarez and Firefighter Paramedic Andy Rupp.
The Valor Award is the highest award given to any service officer in the nation, which includes risking one's life with a willful disregard for your own safety in an attempt to save another's.
Juarez saved two people who lived by a gas line that ruptured during the Montecito debris flow. One of those rescued said that Juarez even gave her a shirt and pants out of her truck before she was rushed to the hospital.
Rupp saved one person from a debris pile, though her father and brother died.
