Sivad Heshimu Johnson
Heroic Detroit firefighter and namesake of a fireboat
Sivad Heshimu Johnson (September 5, 1970 - August 21, 2020) was an American firefighter. He worked for 26 years at the Detroit Fire Department.
Life
In 2017, the Detroit Fire Department awarded Sergeant Johnson its Medal of Honor. Johnson's father and brother also served as firefighters.
On April 16, 2019, Johnson provided a first person account of being trapped, while trying to rescue a civilian from a house fire.
Johnson was also an artist and motivational speaker. Johnson's name Sivad is Davis, backwards, a way to honor his mother, whose maiden name was Davis.
Death
Johnson died while trying to save three children from drowning, on August 21, 2020.
Johnson was off-duty, visiting Belle Isle with his daughter, when he heard the cries of three sisters. Johnson and other on-lookers dived in.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q104082384. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 2020, 2017 and 2019.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sivad Heshimu Johnson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.