By LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / February 27, 1999

HAHNVILLE – A Luling house filled with billowing, black smoke last November. Inside the house, a 6-year-old boy lay helpless. Moments later,Deputy Wayne Joseph crawled inside the burning house and pulled him to safety.

This week, Joseph was honored as the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Deputyof the Year. Earlier, he also received the department’s Medal of Valor.”It’s all in the job,” Joseph said.

The Nov. 8, 1998, fire at 1036 Paul Maillard Road killed Stephon Gordon’s18-month-old brother, Broderick, and his grandfather, 77-year-old August Gordon Sr. Stephon escaped with only smoke inhalation injuries.Joseph, 27, son of Norman Joseph and Barbara Galcagno of Metairie, has served the people of St. Charles Parish since March 1997.”I just happened to fall into it,” he said.

On the night of the fire, Joseph had driven along Paul Maillard Road and passed the residence, which is across the street from St. Charles ParishHospital. However, at midnight, he was on the Boutte end of the roadrunning a license plate on his radio channel when he got a call over the CB radio each deputy carries from Deputy Claude Adams, telling him of the fire.

Joseph rocketed down Paul Maillard, saw the fire, and jumped out, running.

Bystanders told him there were people trapped inside.

Adams, meanwhile, had gone to the Luling VFD station down the road and brought the fire truck to the scene.

As the front door was near the heart of the fire, Joseph went to a side door. Five feet inside the door, the heavy smoke forced him to his knees,crawling along a 1-foot airway near the floor.

“I remember seeing the sofa, but I couldn’t see Mr. August,” Josephrelated. “I turned to my right and saw a white sock.”Stephon was unconscious on the floor. Joseph snatched him up and left thehouse, laying him on the ground. Meanwhile, a neighbor, Frederick Davis,likewise attempted to enter the house from another direction but was forced back by the heat and smoke. During his rescue attempt, Davissustained a broken leg.

Joseph dashed across the street to the hospital with little Stephon, then returned to the house, intending to search for others. “He was only takinga breath every 10 seconds,” Joseph said of the child.

It was too late, though. Gordon was found near the front door, to the leftof where Joseph entered. The infant was found in another room.”I didn’t say anything to anybody for awhile,” Joseph said. It was onlywhen his father saw press reports of the fire that he knew his son was a hero.

“He called and asked me, ‘You don’t tell your father things?'” His proud family, including his girlfriend, Quincee Bourgeois, joined him when he was honored recently with the Medal of Valor. Stephon Gordon’smother, Danielle Gordon, was also there. Adams also received adepartment Distinguished Service Award.

Joseph came out of his service with the U.S. Marine Corps (serving inEurope, Japan, Cuba and Haiti) in 1995 and joined the Louisiana National Guard. He was soon assigned to the CounterDrug Task Force, working incooperation with U.S. Customs.He described his work there as a “gopher” for the detectives. However,after a year and a half, it led to his career in police work in St. CharlesParish.

“I never set my goal to become a police officer,” Joseph commented.

“Things work in mysterious ways.”And one little boy is alive today because of Joseph.

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