By Ed Beeson
The Record
Copyright 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.,
All Rights Reserved

GARFIELD, N.J. — A volunteer firefighter remained in critical condition Monday night, three days after he slammed his car into a utility pole as he raced to a fire call while allegedly drunk, authorities said.

Radoslaw Polanski's vital signs were unstable and unfavorable Monday, a Hackensack University Medical Center spokeswoman said.

The injuries to the 23-year-old native of Poland and Army National Guard veteran have cast a pall over his fellow firefighters at the city's Rescue Engine 3. On Monday, they drank beer and smoked cigarettes while they hoped for positive news about Polanski's condition.

It didn't come.

"The next 24 hours is going to be critical," Fire Chief Ed Ortyl said.

It was unclear Monday night what laws regulate the consumption of alcohol in a firehouse, where Monday's interviews with firefighters took place. Ortyl smoked cigarettes and drank canned Budweiser during the interview.

Polanski, who joined the department in August 2004, was doing his laundry Friday night when a call came in that someone at a borough senior center had left food unattended on a stove, firefighters said.

Polanski jumped into his Honda Accord and sped toward Commerce Street, where the call originated, Deputy Chief Kevin S. Amos said.

Polanski ran through a stop sign at the intersection of Frederick Street and Gaston Avenue, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said. The firefighter hit a pickup truck, which sent the driver's side of his car careening into a telephone pole, Amos said.

Polanski was issued a summons for driving while intoxicated.

Polanski was hours away from his 23rd birthday. He had just received his first paycheck from a Passaic concrete cutting company, his first civilian job since his last military tour of Afghanistan ended in February, firefighters said.

"It sucks, in plain English," a fellow firefighter, Kenny Lugo, 35, said in the Engine 3 firehouse. "He came here to defend his country, and this happened to him. It's crazy."

Neither Ortyl nor officials with the Garfield police would talk about Polanski's alleged intoxication on Monday, with each saying they had yet to see the DWI summons.

No one answered the door at Polanski's home on Grand Street in Garfield, where he lives with his father.

Ortyl said the accident was particularly hard on the younger firefighters.

"It's the waiting that's killing them," he said.

Other firefighters' voices cracked and eyes watered as they recalled the going-away party they threw for Polanski the night before he shipped off to Afghanistan for his recent 13-month tour. Or the time one helped him buy a car. Or the calmer moments at the firehouse, when they'd shoot pool, throw darts and wait for the next call.

"He'll be back," Lugo said. "He'll be back."