SI Advance

Roles in dousing school blaze, making basement rescue and repulsing pit bull

And for their quick thinking when the unexpected happens, seven people who woke up one morning, went to work and ended up doing something heroic, and two men whose heroics happened while off-duty, were honored as Advance Firefighters of the Month during a ceremony yesterday in the New Brighton quarters of Engine Co. 155.

Lts. John Drury of Marine Co. 9 and Richard Romanek of Engine Co. 165 were attending parent-teacher conferences at the Academy of St. Dorothy in Grasmere, where their children are classmates, back in September, when smoke began to fill the school.

The two men, who were off-duty, along with the school's principal, Sister Sharon McCarthy, oversaw the safe and orderly evacuation of the building. Then, Drury and Romanek grabbed fire extinguishers and ran to the roof, where a fire had broken out.

Five members of Engine 155 were honored for their rescue of three workers who were overcome by chemicals while toiling in a basement.

Capt. Brian Gorman said his company was called for a routine medical run to 81 Jersey St., down the block from the firehouse. But when they arrived in the basement of the building, they found two unconscious men wearing Tyvek HazMat suits, and a third with chemical burns.

Though they were not wearing HazMat equipment, the company, including Firefighters Timothy Liss, Kenneth DeForest, Anthony Sabbatino and Jonathan Neureuther, quickly removed the three victims, decontaminated them and performed first aid.

Also honored were FDNY Emergency Medical Technicians Michael DeMarco and Kyle Wigglesworth, for their role in subduing a vicious pit bull.

The two EMTs responded to a 911 call back in October, and found the dog attacking the girls, ages 11 and 17. They pulled splints out of the ambulance and hit the dog to scare him away. The girls were taken to the hospital for treatment. Police who arrived at the scene later were also attacked and were forced to kill the dog.

Yesterday's ceremony served as a reminder of "how fortunate the citizens of Staten Island are to have such dedicated agency members that are off-duty, members in the medical field, and members working in the firehouses, who are always ready, able and qualified to handle any situation," said Chief Michael Feminella of Battalion 21 in Rosebank.