Heroic 22-Year-Old UPS Driver Saves 8 Lives From Flooded Route 22 In Bridgewater: Videos

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — As floodwaters rose around them, 22-year-old Bridgewater native Nick Dirla kept his cool using his humor to keep eight people calm during Hurricane Ida while helping to save their lives. (See videos below)

Dirla, a Bridgewater-Raritan High School graduate, had just started his new job with UPS a few weeks ago when Ida hit. He had finished his deliveries when he was asked to make one more in Garwood.

"The rain got heavier and heavier and heavier as I got further out. The residential roads started to flood. This was not your normal rain. I was getting a bit nervous but I was in big truck and I didn't think anything of it," said Dirla.

As Dirla drove down Route 22 West he approached the Mountain Avenue overpass in Bridgewater and that is when he ran into "carnage."

"I was literally looking at people's cars floating. They had water up to the top of their windows. To put it frankly we were in deep stuff," said Dirla.

People were sitting on top of their cars just floating down the highway. Dirla said the water was maybe six inches from the top of the median in the center of the highway.

But Dirla was in a big truck and only 2 miles away from the UPS building. He was determined to get home so he just went through. That was a mistake.

"The truck just went kaput. It was done. The engine was flooded. I sat there in disbelief. 'Are you kidding me?! I am so close to the building!' Dirla said. "I am in disbelief. It was absolute carnage everywhere. Cars everywhere. Water rushing down the highway."

Dirla didn't have time to settle down when he saw a woman on top of her car floating toward him yelling 'Help! Help! You gotta help me!'

The woman's car floated right into Dirla's truck and he just pulled her into the truck through his window.

As Dirla looked out the window of the truck he saw an older couple just sitting in their car frozen with water filling up around their laps.

"They didn't know what to do. I told them to come in the truck," said Dirla. "The windows on the truck are about a foot wide. So it wasn't easy but I just started yanking people through the window."

He pulled in three more people and then a Bound Brook emergency responder's car got flooded right next to his truck. He pulled him in.

Another two people were wading through the highway with water up to their belly button. Everyone stood in the back of the truck with hopes of the rain stopping.

That hope quickly faded when the truck started to flood.

Some people in the group started to freak out and Dirla, who had been voted class clown in high school, used his humor to keep people's spirits up.

"I am kind of a laugh-it-off kind of person, it is my coping mechanism," said Dirla. "I was just trying to calm everyone down."

The group made the decision to jump ship, so to speak.

"If we don't get out now we will get washed away on the highway. There was nothing else to do. We put all of our stuff in bags and hopped out," said Dirla.

Some of the people linked arms as they slowly waded through the water towards Mountain Avenue. Dirla who stands at 6-foot-two-inches tall said the water was up to his nipples.

"Water was spilling over the median onto the other side of 22 at that point. You don't realize how high those medians are until you are up against it. We just kept walking through. We got all the way over to the other side and reached the grass. That's when I said, 'OK let's find a house.'" said Dirla.

The group just began going down the road knocking on people's doors. It took about five or six houses before a woman finally opened her door.

"She just stood there in a bit of disbelief seeing nine soaking wet individuals," said Dirla. "She was initially hesitant since it was 9:30 or 10 at night... I was ready to pay this woman to help us."

Eventually the woman said it was her parent's home but she could take the people to her home down the road where her boyfriend was. Her boyfriend, ironically was a UPS driver as well.

The woman had a lifted Jeep and took two trips to bring everyone to her home. At the home, the couple fed the group and dried their clothes in the dryer as they awaited rides back home.

"Me and the older couple were the only ones who stayed overnight and slept in a stranger's house. But my truck was gone and the cars were totally washed away. It was absolutely a nightmare. I thank God everyone was OK. Belongings are just belongings," said Dirla.

"It was apocalyptic," said Dirla. "That's how it felt."

Dirla's parents Fred and Patty Dirla were not surprised yet unbelievably proud of their son's actions that night.

"I am so overwhelmed with relief that he is OK and very, very proud of him. I am just so proud of him that he was able to do what he did for those people. We are very, very relieved he is safe," said Patty Dirla.

Dirla's mom was the one who alerted Patch to her son's heroic efforts since he doesn't like to be in the limelight.

Very humble, Dirla himself said he didn't think what he did was a "big deal."

"People need to hear this nice story. With no doubt, if something were to ever happen I knew he would rise to the occasion," said Patty Dirla as she held back tears. "I am just so proud of my son. I know he will continue to do great things in life."

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