Two of Gulf Shores' finest were honored for doing their finest to save lives at the Aug. 10 city council meeting.

Two sergeants, Sgt. Will Phillips and Command Sgt. Landon Coker, arrived first at the scene of separate medical emergencies and started lifesaving procedures until fire department personnel arrived and took over. Both received lifesaving awards at the meeting. During the regular session meeting, Gulf Shores City Council also honored the fire department's lifeguard of the month, Omar Lagos.

On May 9, Phillips noticed he was closest to the scene of a medical distress call over city first-responder radios.

"He heard an emergency tone on the fire channel, and Sgt. Phillips advised dispatch he was responding to the location for an unresponsive male subject," Lt. Josh Hoguet told council. "This call was then updated by the caller, which was Mr. Lawley's wife, that he was in cardiac arrest."

Phillips grabbed his medical bag from his patrol vehicle and rushed in to start working on Harvey Lawley.

"The unresponsive male was located laying on his back and not breathing," Hoguet said. "Sgt. Phillips did not hesitate and started CPR. After one minute of continuous CPR, Mr. Lawley started breathing. To assist Mr. Lawley with breathing, a bag valve mask was applied and utilized by Sgt. Phillips."

Lawley was stabilized and transported to a hospital where he was given a stark assessment.

"He was advised he experienced a pulseless cardiac arrest on May 9," Hoguet said. "He was advised by doctors that a subject experiencing this outside of a hospital had a 2% survival rate. Mr. Lawley made very clear he was thankful for the actions by Sgt. Phillips performed that night."

Hoguet cited a timeline from the time Phillips got the call until he was administering aid.

"At 23:56 hours, Sgt. Phillips radioed that he was responding," Hoguet said. "At 23:58 hours, Sgt. Phillips started CPR. At 23:59 hours, Mr. Lawley started breathing. That was a three-minute response in time that he had him breathing. For these actions, Sergeant Phillips is being presented with the Life-Saving Award."

In a separate incident, Coker responded to a call in the area of Souvenir City in the Beach Walking District of a suspected cardiac arrest on June 3.

"Command Sgt. Coker arrived on scene along with two other officers and was able to locate Mrs. Kaebler doing CPR on her husband in one of the rooms," Hoguet said. "Command Sgt. Coker relieved her from CPR and continued for four and a half minutes until medical personnel arrived and took over CPR and assisted with the medical."

After more work on the patient, his pulse was restarted and was alert and conscious when he was transported.

"I'm speaking with Mr. [Billy] and Mrs. Kelber who are in Indiana today," Hoguet said. "They tuned in to our Facebook page. Mrs. Kelber wanted to emphasize that the continued efforts by Command Sgt. Coker and that without it, her husband would not have survived. And for these actions, Command Sgt. Coker is being presented with a life-saving medal."

Hoguet pointed out that both Phillips and Coker are supervisors with the patrol division's Squad A.

LIFEGUARD OF THE MONTH

Gulf Shores Fire and Rescue Chief of Staff Melvin Shepard presented Omar Lagos, a five-year veteran with the Beach Safety Division, as the July honoree.

"Over the last month, he's had 37 calls of service involving 392 people, including 217 public contacts, 56 ordinance enforcements, five missing children, 101 preventative actions — a preventative action is an event that they stopped before it became life-threatening five minor medical calls, one wildlife incident, one rescus and three assists," Shepard said.

One of those actions included another heart episode with a male beachgoer.

"I was at the beach, and Omar came upon a gentleman that was having a medical emergency and responded to it appropriately, and it was at a cardiac event that the man was experiencing," Shepard said. "We were able to get him treated and transported to the hospital."

Shepard also gave a report on seven city lifeguards who competed in a national event at Fort Lauderdale with the Emerald Coast Chapter. The team came in fifth out of 36 teams. A first-year lifeguard received a high-performance award and is being recruited to compete on the national team.

During the council meeting, council also:

Approved an assembly permit for the Bloody Mary 5K on Sept. 5 at 7:30 a.m. starting and ending near Tacky Jacks in the Waterway Village District;

Approved the assembly permit for the 53rd-annual National Shrimp Festival for Oct. 8-11 at Gulf Place;

Approved a liquor license for the Salty Whisker cat lounge at the southwest corner of East 20th Avenue and East Second Street; and

OK'd a contract with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management for the city to hear variance requests and patrol the beaches as part of the Alabama Coastal Area Management Plan. The city does this annually and will be reimbursed by ADEM for $66,500.

Council will next meet in a work session at 4 p.m. on Aug. 17 in council chambers at city hall.