Jersey Journal
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Five Jersey City firefighters have been honored for risking their lives to save two firefighters who plunged through a collapsed floor into a flooded basement.
“Thank God they were there,” said Jersey City Firefighter Tony Martin, of his colleagues who came to his rescue and also saved a Harrison firefighter at a Kearny restaurant fire on May 8, 2006.
“Hearing their voices, even though it was smoky and I was in a bad spot, maybe that was why I was calm,” he added. “I can never thank them enough.”
Martin was speaking at the department’s annual awards ceremony Friday on the pier behind the Hyatt Regency Jersey City on the Hudson, at Exchange Place.
Awarded the department’s Medal of Honor were Captains Daniel Dornacker and Francis Reynolds, and Firefighters Angelo Maino, Kevin McSorley and John Saitta.
The Medal of Honor is awarded to firefighters who “perform above and beyond the call of duty, at an extreme personal risk, that had been instrumental in resulting and saving another from death.”
Martin said he was behind the burning building when another firefighter began walking in the back door of the restaurant, where he’d eaten before.
“I had just started saying to him, ‘You ever had sangria?’ and the next thing I know I’m falling backward, my helmet flies off, and I hit the water and went under,” Martin said. He said he could feel a lobster tank spilling its water over him as he struggled, submerged in 8 feet of water. Martin couldn’t touch the floor.
“When I looked at all the faces I thought, ‘Holy cow, is it that bad?’ ” said Martin.
By then the firefighters had grabbed his arms and were holding him partially out of the water, but they couldn’t haul him out because he was too far below them and his already heavy gear was soaked.
“I was able to get a footing on the lobster tank and get another foothold and they pulled me and I wound up on top of two guys on the foyer floor,” said Martin. “The next thing I know they were putting a ladder in and someone was going down and (the Harrison firefighter) was holding onto a beam.”
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