Off-Duty Firefighter Risks Life to Save Two From Drowning at Shore

Scotch Plains resident Lou Cerchio almost didn't go to the Shore on Sunday. Tired from an all day shift at the Westfield firehouse on Saturday, Cerchio finally decided it would be fun to unwind on the beach at Jenkinson's in Point Pleasant Beach.

When he arrived at 11:30 a.m., however, he realized that he and his family would spend most of their time out of the water. Huge waves raked the shore, the lifeguards were gone for the summer, and Cerchio, who himself had lifeguarded at the beach years before, knew that it lacked a sandbar. Together, those three conditions made for treacherous swimming. 

"I told my kids if they got their toes wet we're leaving," Cerchio said.

Forty-five minutes later, Cerchio's slumber on the beach was interrupted when he heard a woman scream behind him while pointing toward the unrelenting Atlantic waves.

"I heard a woman screaming 'Oh, my God, they need help,'" Cerchio said.

Looking out toward the water, Cerchio said he saw two swimmers struggling to stay afloat. Thinking he'd need to help pull them from the crashing waves, Cerchio stood, tossed his cell phone to his wife, Lisa, and said he was going to help. He was wearing cargo shorts.

Getting to the breakers, Cerchio realized the situation was far worse than he had thought. He saw the two people, a mother and son, farther out than they had initially seemed. A man was coming out of the water after trying to help.

"The man was saying ,'I couldn't get them, I couldn't get them," Cerchio said.

Cerchio took off his sunglasses and told the man to call 911. Then, without even second guessing what he was doing, the six-year Westfield firefighter and former physical education teacher at Roosevelt Intermediate School dove into the water to save the woman and her son who were slowly sliding under the waves. 

"It was very difficult, the waves were relentless," he said. "I made it to them and grabbed both, clinging to each other and barely above water."

Little did Cerchio know his own struggle against the churning ocean was just beginning. Holding on to the son, whom he guessed was 12, waves started crashing into the group, pushing them under the water, pulling Cerchio from the pair. Cerchio turned and looked toward shore, hoping others had arrived to help.

"I said they are going to be okay and looked back, and there was no one in water," he said.

At the time, Cerchio did not realize that his wife and many others on the beach had called 911, and the emergency response system was swinging into place with lifeguards, police officers and the Coast Guard. For the entire rescue, however, Cerchio remained the main person involved. 

Complicating efforts were the size of the pair and their swimming ability. Cerchio estimated that the woman weighed 280 pounds, and the son 140 pounds. Finally communicating with the son – every time Cerchio tried to talk, the group was pushed under by a new wave – he found out that while the son could swim, the mother could not. During the entire time, the mother remained silent, apparently in shock by the circumstances she found herself in when she went to rescue her son from a wave.

"Once I learned they couldn't swim, I said we're going to try to ride a wave in. We got beat up pretty bad," he said. "The boy's shorts which I was holding on to ripped right off his body. They got separated from me two or three times. This poor kid had no clothes on and they were exhausted. They were not screaming for help at all."

Cerchio realized the situation was far worse than anything he had seen during his time as a lifeguard at Jenkinson's. He was used to doing ocean saves with ropes and flotation devices and a team of lifeguards assisting each other. Suddenly he was without all of those things. It was Cerchio versus the most unrelenting foe of them all: the ocean. 

Getting closer to shore, Cerchio could hear others shouting advice to them and trying to help. Suddenly he was able to put a toe down on the ocean floor, and he tried to pull the pair closer to shore. Then another wave came down, crushing them and sending them back out to sea. 

Riding a wave back in, Cerchio said he saw a man coming toward him with a flotation device, which they used to help bring the mother and son in. But the danger wasn't over. Another wave rushed in that almost brought all four back out. Another wave carried an abandoned yellow surfboard, which almost came crashing down on everyone. 

Finally on dry land, Cerchio could only think of one thing.

"Once we got to the beach I collapsed and was exhausted and happy to be on the beach," he said, suddenly finding his pockets full of sand from the ocean floor.

He watched as other rescuers sprung into action. He saw the police and rescue squad there, along with the Coast Guard in the sea. People on the beach rushed to cover the now naked son with towels and blankets. Others made sure the group was safe and not in any more danger.

People started coming up to him, hugging him and thanking him for the rescue. He could only think of going back to his family, who witnessed it all. He talked briefly to the mother and son on the beach, but they were being cared for by the local rescue squad.

Lying on the beach and then home in Scotch Plains on Monday, Cerchio said he could not stop thinking about how close he came to being sucked in himself. Looking back on his experience, he said he remembers trying to stay calm, all the while thinking how he was putting his own life on the line to help two people he had never met, an instinct instilled during his time battling fires in Westfield.

"I was definitely scared," he said. "I did not think too much when I swam out there, it was instinct. When I got there, I thought holy s**t, we are going to have to stay out there for a while.

"I didn't panic. I was definitely frightened. I thought I have to make it back to the beach as well. Luckily, the woman didn't panic and didn't grab me. She was holding onto her son and didn't let go."

Those who witnessed Cerchio's heroics from the beach, confirm that he ran in without thinking, and said that the woman and son would not have made it without him.

"If he wasn't out there they would not have lasted," Gina DiGrado, of Langhorne, Pa, said. "He booked out there real quick. The first wave came and then he got out there to the people." 

Cerchio said that he had not had an experience that compared to what occurred Sunday. As a lifeguard at Jenkinson's, rescue operations were "controlled" – many others were already there to help, and had prepared for any contingency. As a firefighter, most blazes were "routine." Nothing, he said, prepared him to wholly risk his life Sunday. 

"You can only pray if you are in harms way there is someone there to help them as well," he said. "There were a lot of things against us. The size of the woman and her son didn't help and the waves. There was definitely help from somewhere else that pushed us back in."