By Kevin Shea
The Times
Copyright 2007 The Republican Company
All Rights Reserved
TRENTON, N.J. — John Kubis walked into fire headquarters yesterday the picture of health at age 51, clad in a stylish blazer and jeans with his blond hair tousled as if he just stepped off a yacht.
But it’s been no day at the beach for Kubis since July 31, the day his car crashed on Calhoun Street because his heart stopped beating. Kubis, of East Windsor, spent three weeks in the hospital and now has a pacemaker.
However, he arrived at the hospital alive because of four city firefighters, Capt. William Normile and firefighters Paul Ressler, Wayne Wolk and Ryan Aquilino, who found Kubis basically dead when they arrived at the car crash.
The crew went to work by deploying their automatic external defibrillator and along with a paramedic crew, they shocked Kubis’ heart back to life.
Yesterday, Kubis met and thanked the four men who saved his life and watched as they were awarded fire department medals. With his mother Charlotte Kubis and other family members present, an emotional Kubis said to his lifesavers: “I am here today because of the efforts of this group of people. Thank you.”
“There isn’t a better thing than saving the life of someone who is now standing in front of you,” Aquilino said in response. “It makes every day even better.”
The fire department hopes it will be able to save more lives and have more such reunions starting in the coming months.
At the awards ceremony, during which 35 medals were presented, the department unveiled its plan to start responding to more emergency medical calls, and it will operate under a new name: the Department of Fire & Emergency Services.
“No longer do fire departments in the United States or around the world only extinguish fires,” acting Fire Director Richard Laird said.
The fire department is not taking over emergency medical services in the city but will back up or assist Trenton Emergency Medical Service (TEMS), the city’s front-line ambulance service, Laird said.
TEMS, under Director Ralph Gumbert, is training all 236 firefighters to the level of EMS First Responder.
City firefighters are already counted on in Mercer County and parts of Bucks County, Pa., for specialized rescue capabilities, including hazardous materials response, underwater search and recovery, structural collapse and confined space rescue.
“Now, beginning in the early winter of 2007, we will be enhancing the existing emergency medical service by providing EMS First Responder-level care and service to our city,” Laird said.
“Today we begin a new era,” Mayor Douglas H. Palmer said at the ceremony. “Going forward, the expanded mission of the Department of Fire and Emergency Services will hit new heights in public service, building on a tradition that is already legendary.”
The other commendations awarded yesterday are:
Capt. Robert Tharp was honored with a class II valor award for his leadership and actions at the scene of a December fire on Prospect Street during which five firefighters were saved - two from near death in the basement. Class III valor awards were presented to Battalion Chief John Gribbin and firefighters Juan Valentin, Michael Burzachiello, Keith Quinlan, Carlos Otero, Joe Bryce and Ernest Wilcox for actions at the same fire.
Firefighter Carlos Negron was awarded a class III valor award for rescuing a mother and two children from the windows of a burning house on Hudson Street in December. Negron was off duty when he leapt into action with bystanders, catching two children dropped by their mother and then catching the mother as well.
Firefighters Michael Welsh, Ralph Bencivengo, Anthony Moran and Jeffrey Sawasky were awarded a class III award for their rescue in April 2006 of two fishermen trapped on rocks in the Delaware River. The department awarded a class IV unit citation for the same rescue to: Capts. Michael Candelori, Paul Tweedly and Timothy Mains and firefighters Michael Welsh, Benito Parrotta, Joseph Muni III, Ronald Ettenger, Mark Robotin, Greg Brown, Timothy Slack, Randall Boyd, Marshall Vincent, Conrad Dubow, Robert Bland and John Kolaski.