Jeff Novack is indeed a hero, and a soft-spoken one at that. I know from history that firefighters are reluctant to talk about their deeds -- it is what they do and they hate being singled out for pulling someone out of a burning building.

"What we do happens every day."

Those were the simple words of 23-year-old Novack as he faced a bank of television cameras after getting the Medal of Valor from Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. He got in front of a convention full of fellow firefighters from around the country at Thursday's opening ceremony of the Firehouse Expo, and that made him even more nervous. He politely told the mayor he didn't want to speak at the ceremony.

In the photo by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor, Novack is with Fire Chief James S. Clack and Rawlings-Blake.

You'll probably remember that Novack rushed into a burning apartment building on Liberty Heights Avenue in April and rescued an elderly woman. He then rushed back in, got trapped and clung to a third-story window pain before finally letting go and falling to the ground. He recovered and is expected back at work in a few months.

(The Sun's Julie Scharper wrote a complete story on the fire and Novack's heroics a few weeks ago.)

But for the fire union, Jeffrey Novack is more than a hero. He's a symbol of everything that is wrong with the Baltimore Fire Department and the city. Novack was on a truck company and responsible for rescues. The nearest engine that pumps the water was on another call, and the next closest engine had bed shut down for budget reasons as part of rolling closures.

So Novack went into the burning building without backup. The union has used this case as yet another example of safety being compromised to save money. And union officials found it particularly upsetting that the mayor touted her devotion to public safety and the Fire Department in front of firefighters fround around the country when they feel she has compromised the safety of the city.

The mayor's office counters that Rawlings-Blake saved firefighters' jobs during one of the city's worst budgets, started programs to curtail frequent callers to 911 and reduced the number of rotating closures from up to five or six companies a day to three.

The young Jeff Novack has become part of the debate but he hasn't added to it. He accepted his award, the applause and the attention that comes with it. To the mayor, he's a shining example of what this city is about. To the union, he's a shining exmample of a troubled city.

Jeff Novack just wants to come back to work, fight fires and save lives.