When firefighter and nearly minted University of Akron graduate Benjamin Stasik heard a scream bellow from a burning Mogadore house in 2011 — as a first responder to the scene — he lunged into the flames and smoke without hoses yet connected and without a second thought. Stasik emerged with a mother and son in tow, and alive.
Benjamin Stasik
“It was the job. Anyone would have done it,” says Stasik, who says he itched to be a firefighter since he was a little boy. For Stasik, the smoke between a childhood dream and a life’s mission cleared during that fateful Sept. 23, 2011, rescue. “It gave me the confidence knowing I made the right decision.”
Stasik will graduate Friday, Dec. 12, from UA’s College of Applied Science and Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Emergency Management and Homeland Security and a 3.95 GPA. He will also speak on behalf of the Class of 2014 as the student responder at the 7 p.m. commencement ceremony at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall. As he worked toward his degree, Stasik served full time as a firefighter and paramedic for the Tallmadge Fire Department and part-time in the same role for the Mogadore Fire Department.
Honored for service
For his heroic 2011 actions, Stasik received the Ohio Firefighter’s Association’s “Firefighter of the Year” Award, the Mogadore Mayoral Proclamation of Bravery and the American Red Cross “Acts of Courage” Award. As a student, Stasik drew upon his academic experience at UA and developed proposals that secured state and federal grants totaling more than $700,000 for several regional fire departments.
Most certainly, Stasik has firefighting is in blood. His great-grandfather, Ray Paulus, served as one of the Tallmadge Fire Department’s first firemen, leaving Stasik big footsteps to follow to exactly where he says he should be. “I do feel I’m in the right position,” he says.
Media contact: Denise Henry, 330-972-6477 or henryd@uakron.edu.