West Caldwell Firefighters Get Valor Awards for Their Response During Fatal House Blaze

Nobody knows how they’ll react under pressure in a life-or-death situation until it happens.

But two West Caldwell firefighters now do.

Captain Tom Webber and Firefighter Brian Drastal of the West Caldwell Volunteer Fire Department were recently honored by the 200 Club of Essex County, which held its 2015 Valor Awards in West Orange.

According to a release:

“On July 27, 2014, at 2:46 a.m., the Essex Fells Fire Department was dispatched to a house fire at 68 Fells Road. Arriving units discovered a working house fire and immediately requested mutual aid for more help. Among the towns responding to render assistance was Roseland and West Caldwell.

“With reports of a victim inside the house, firefighters from Roseland and West Caldwell were assigned to do an interior search of the house. Once inside the crews were met with severe heat and smoke, and the fire was spreading to the roof area. Roseland’s Captain Douglas Yates and West Caldwell’s Captain Tom Webber and Firefighter Brian Drastal, working as an interior search team, started forcing open doors in an effort to locate the victim. They were protected in their efforts by West Caldwell firefighters using a 1 and ¾ inch hand line.

“Finally in the last room they located an adult female lying unconscious on the bed. Under these stressful conditions, they were able to remove her from the bed and hand her off to other firefighters who carrier her out of the house. Even though CPR and other efforts were initiated to save her, she succumbed to her injuries.

“Despite the negative results, Roseland Captain Douglas Yates, West Caldwell Captain Tom Webber and West Caldwell Firefighter Brian Drastal performed admirably and professionally as a team, despite the advanced fire conditions at the time of their rescue.”

THE MEANING OF VALOR

Nominations for The 200 Club’s Valor Award are made by chiefs of Essex County’s municipal fire and police departments and the commanding officers of federal, state and regional public safety agencies.

Valor Award recipients are selected by The 200 Club’s Executive Committee.

This year’s award winners were:

• Detective Nicholas Rizzitello of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and mounted Newark Police Officer Erich Schroeder, for the capture of an armed suspect who was holding a victim at gunpoint on Mulberry Street during Newark’s evening rush hour
• Essex County Sheriff’s Officers Richard Alberto, a resident of Nutley, and Erik Udvarhely, a resident of Belleville, for risking their lives while jumping across three rooftops at a height of three stories to capture a major narcotics distributor who was armed with three, semi-automatic handguns
• Irvington Police Lieutenant Stewart Townsend and Detective Andres Lebron for the capture of an armed bank robber
• Newark Police Captain Richard Perez and Officer Dennis Dominguez who engaged in a shoot-out while capturing an armed robbery suspect (Dominguez was wounded during the incident)
• Newark Police Detective Louis Weber for the pursuit and capture of an armed suspect
• New Jersey State Police Sergeants Fidiberto Soto and Damon Crawford for the pursuit and capture of an armed robbery suspect
• Nutley Patrolman Davis Schus for the capture of a knife-wielding suspect who had killed one male victim and severely wounded a second male victim

• Newark Fire Captains Danny Farrell and Kevin Reilly and Firefighter Khalif Boyer for the rescue of an unconscious female victim from a two-story residential fire
• Newark Fire Captain John Norvis and Firefighters Reynard Gasavage and Wilson Vasquez for the rescue of an unconscious female victim from an apartment house fire at Georgia King Village
• Maplewood Fire Captains Michael Demartini and Kevin Hayes and Firefighters Joseph Alvarez, Michael Amato, Richard Salkowski and Dennis Weust, and Maplewood Police Sergeant Vincent DeCicco and Officers Kraig Huncken, Rodney Tannenbaum and Henry Wasielewski for the rescue of a construction worker who was trapped beneath the debris of a building collapse
• Millburn Fire Battalion Chief James Boyle, Captains Chris Beady and Shawn Daly and Firefighters Marlin Adams, Andrew Dante, Peter DiCostanzo, David Hammond, Steve Jason and Joe Tobia for the rescue of a construction worker who had fallen through the floor of a residential garage and was trapped in a trench beneath the structure