Joe Schubert

By Brian Sodoma

Friday, May 1, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Joe Schubert came to Southern Nevada nearly three years ago to be closer to his family. With most of them moving to the valley from New Jersey more than a decade ago, he was one of the last to come out West. Schubert, an emergency medical technician for American Medical Response, also has his family to thank for indirectly guiding him into a field he enjoys.

Schubert, 25, who sees himself becoming a trauma nurse one day, was recently called to action while driving home from work. He remembers the February 2008 event vividly, as he approached a home in his neighborhood whose garage was ablaze and threatening the rest of the house.

“The only thing keeping it (the fire) from coming into the house was the door (to the inside of the house),” Schubert noted.

After finding out from a girl outside the home that others were inside, Schubert wet his uniform shirt, put it over his face and entered the building after telling the informant to call 911. Inside, he found the girl’s mother, father, older brother and grandmother. As he led them out of the house, the grandmother panicked and froze. Schubert still was able to usher the family out of the house before the staircase he navigated them down collapsed.

Schubert downplays his heroic effort as a simple commitment to his profession, which he went into after a friend in New Jersey, who was an EMT, recommended he try it. Schubert was a lifeguard before he went to EMT school, then spent a year and a half as an EMT in the Garden State before moving to Las Vegas.

“I fell in love with it immediately,” Schubert said. “I enjoy making a difference in people’s lives and brightening their days as much as I can, even in their time of need.”

For his efforts in the rescue, Schubert will receive the Star of Life Award from the American Ambulance Association. The award goes to EMTs who go above and beyond the call of duty; it is only given to about 100 recipients a year. There are more than 200,000 EMTs in the United States today. Schubert will be honored in Washington, D.C., in May, along with other fellow heroes from around the nation.