Mehlville Fire Protection District officials recently recognized Mehlville Senior High School students for their assistance in revamping the emergency exit maps at the South County Mall.

The students, members of Robert Schimmel’s Civil Engineering Architecture Class, were recognized by Deputy Chief Dave Waser and Capt. Nick Fahs at a recent Board of Education meeting.

Students honored include: Andy Yost, Mel Peterein, Kevin Williams, Julie Capizzi, Kara Klein, Michael O’Brien, Nick Geer, Nick Cooley and David Lecko.

During the ceremony, Fahs read a letter from Chief Silvernail that was sent to each student that thanked them for their assistance and noted that their efforts “will directly save lives.”

“… The fire district needed to update our South County Mall map and searched for the right people to help us save lives with this map. What this map does is allow us the advantage to quickly find an exact location of an injured or sick person when they are in need and in a facility that is over 1 million square feet,” Silvernail’s letter stated.

“Once a person collapses, the clock begins to run on the rest of their life. We have only four minutes to reach them and begin our advanced life-support treatment. Understanding that we are two minutes away from the mall with drive time, the window to save someone is greatly shortened.

“With your efforts and the effort of all your classmates in the Civil Engineering and Architectural class, you have given us as firefighters and paramedics a head start in locating these sick or non-breathing individuals. When our alarm sounds, we can now quickly go to your map, locate the exact location and determine the quickest entrance to find the patient and begin to render care,” the chief’s letter stated.

Silvernail also noted another benefit of the students’ work with the map is that it protects firefighters and paramedics.

“Along with the entrances, you marked and located all the hose cabinets that allow us to fight fire from the interior using pre-piped water supplies. How this benefits us as firefighters is it allows us to pick the proper entrance so we will pass the hose cabinet on the way to a store if it is reported to be on fire,” Silvernail stated in the letter. “It would put us in great danger to be franticly looking for a hose cabinet when a portion of the mall is on fire. Your efforts have made a very dangerous situation much safer.

“So while any type of community service should be applauded, what you have done is much more. Your efforts will directly save lives. You did this knowing that you will probably never meet the people you save, but just know that your efforts are appreciated,” the letter stated.

The firefighters presented a plaque to the Mehlville School District, which was accepted by Board of Education President Tom Diehl.