By Eugene Paik
The Star-Ledger
PASSAIC COUNTY, N.J. — A fishing trip at the Butler Reservoir for two Passaic County men and a Garfield man Tuesday turned into a nighttime rescue for police, a borough police spokesman said yesterday.
Lt. John Schwartz said a Kinnelon Fire Company rescue boat was needed to ferry two of the men, who suffered injuries from a fall of eight feet along the reservoir’s edge.
Tadeusz Jarosz, 50, of Passaic, was taken to Chilton Memorial Hospital for a head injury and a possible rib injury, police said. Kazimierz Malinowski, 51, of Garfield, also was treated at the hospital for a leg injury. Both were released Tuesday night.
The third man, Lech Krupinski, 41, of Passaic, was not hurt.
According to police, the fishermen were walking on a rocky waterside trail around 7:45 p.m. They lost their bearings because of the dark sky and were searching for a way out without any flashlights, Schwartz said.
They had also consumed alcohol, he said.
The area’s rocky terrain and the dark surroundings soon caused problems for the men. To find help, Krupinski left the others and went into the dark woods, Schwartz said.
“He went to get help but got lost himself,” Schwartz said.
Police believe Jarosz was the first man to wander off the trail and fall. Malinowski tried to help Jarosz, Schwartz said, but he also tumbled down the ridge.
The injured men, unable to speak English fluently, used a cell phone to call a friend in Kinnelon for help, he said.
Officers from Kinnelon and Butler arriving to rescue the men found them about a half-mile from a road near the north shore, he said. The fishermen had made their way into the area from Fayson Lakes Road, authorities said.
Police decided the best way to transport the hobbled men out of the wooded reservoir was by boat, Schwartz said. The rescue crew launched the boat near Bubbling Brook Road and took the men to ambulances waiting along the water’s edge.
The lost Krupinski found his way out of the woods by following the police flashlights, he said.
Copyright 2009 Newark Morning Ledger Co.
All Rights Reserved