OAKLEY -- For what their fire chief called a historic act of bravery, two Oakley men will receive the Idaho Medal of Honor today in Meridian for saving a man from a burning house 10 years ago.

An Idaho Falls police officer also will be honored during the ceremony for a 2004 act of bravery.

U.S. Army Captain Troy Greenwell, now living in Laurel, Md., and Joe Stringham, still in Oakley, are being honored for saving the life of Carl Covington on Nov. 6, 1995, when his home in Oakley was destroyed by fire.

On a cold November day in 1995, the Oakley Fire Department received an alarm that a home just west and north of the former Oakley Grade School was on fire.

Response from the volunteer department was good. Of the 15 volunteers registered with the department, 14 responded right away and assessed the situation.

An old frame house was fully engulfed in flames. Some family members were standing outside, but they were yelling that Covington was still in the home.

As firemen began working to extinguish the flames from around and on top of the home, Greenwell and Stringham donned their self-contained breathing devices and entered the smoke- and fire-filled home.

They were driven back by the flames.

"For all intents and purposes, we should have drawn back and stayed out, but how do you face the frantic cries of family members?" Greenwell said.

"We entered the home again and did a room by room search, failing to find Covington, and we were running out of oxygen, so we again exited."

Greenwell said after donning new breathing devices, the pair made a third try against all caution for safety.

"I should have forbid them from going in again," Oakley Fire Chief Harlo Clark said. "But contrary to every safety measure we practice, they went in a third time."

They pushed through the house, feeling in the dark, and reached a closed door. When they pushed against what they thought had been a locked room, the door opened slightly. Feeling behind the door, Greenwell found Covington unconscious on the floor.

"He was a big man and it took both of us to carry him out," Greenwell said. "I didn't know if he'd make it or not."

Covington was rushed to the hospital and transferred by Life Flight helicopter to Salt Lake City, where he recovered from smoke inhalation and other fire-related injuries. He could not be found to comment for this story.

"I am still overwhelmed by this and I can only say I am just very humbled by it all," Stringham said when contacted about the award.

Although 10 years have passed since the rescue, Greenwell and Stringham are being honored now with the newly established award, which was opened to living heroes last year.