JOB WELL DONE
Sayreville first responders catch four from second-floor window of burning
JOB WELL DONE
The Hero Games: Catching Fire
Sayreville first responders catch four from second-floor window of burning
n BY JOSHUA SIGMUND
Twelve-year-old Jailyn Holloway faced an impossible decision: Remain in the bathroom as fire steadily encroached, or jump out of the second-story window to try to get help for the four family members trapped with her in the fast-burning Sayreville house.
Leading up to this moment of truth – Aug. 22 at about 1:50 p. m. – Jailyn had already proved her heroism and steadfastness. Armed with the knowledge gained from a recent youth fire prevention course with the Sayreville Fire Marshal’ s Office, she recognized the ringing smoke alarm, observed smoke and fire blocking her egress, ushered everyone into the bathroom with a window and kept all doors shut, buying them some more time while calling 9-1-1. Sayreville Fire Official Kevin Krushinski believes that training helped save lives.
“ You might not always see end results, but you saw it here,” he expressed about the course’ s socalled dividends.“ You can’ t measure what you do in public safety because there’ s no end product. It’ s not like you work at Ford and turn out 100 Explorers. But that day, the dividends were there.”
With her family as safe as they were going to be for the moment, Jailyn braved the nearly 18-foot jump from the bathroom window to the ground, landed safely and attempted to find help.
Meanwhile, first-on-scene Sayreville Patrolman Brian Gay had been working his beat when he observed smoke emanating a few blocks away and hustled to find the source. Gay approached the house and encountered Jailyn who advised there were still two children, an infant and an adult female stranded in the second-floor bathroom. She led him around the house as Gay shouted for two residents in range to go grab a ladder.
Right behind them, Sayreville First-Assistant Fire Chief George Gawron also happened to be in the area, and when he saw the smoke, headed to the scene before the tones even went off.
Together, the small-but-mighty response crew consisting of a law enforcement officer, a firefighter, a 12-year-old girl and two neighbors, including a retired public works employee carrying a backyard ladder, focused its efforts on rescuing the rest of Jailyn’ s family.
“ We were about to put the ladder up( to the bathroom window)
Above, Sayreville firefighters work to extinguish blaze after all victims were rescued.( Photo by Charles Philipone) Left, Sayreville First-Assistant Chief George Gawron( left) and Sayreville Patrolman Brian Gay return to the scene where they rescued a family from a burning house.
but( another little girl about age 10) just jumped,” recalled Gay, who managed to break her fall.“ She just wasn’ t staying. She didn’ t want to sit there and talk to me. You could see the panic in everybody’ s eyes in that window.”
Then another young girl took her leap of faith, and landed safely in Gay’ s arms.
“ I’ ve gotten people out of buildings in the past, but catching people out of windows was a first,” he admitted.“ It was scary – not something you’ re expecting. But you’ re not thinking – just going with what’ s going on.”
About this time, Gawron had reached the action in the backyard, and just in time.
“ The woman held a basket carrier with a baby out the window,” Gawron said.“ We shouted‘ Drop the baby! We got her, we got her!’ She was pretty calm and listening to the directions( Gay) and myself were giving her.”
Like the scene in The Untouchables when Kevin Costner’ s Elliot Ness saves the baby whose carriage is rolling down the train station steps, this infant’ s split-second descent must have appeared to take place in slow motion. And with the apparent ease of the game of catch played by Costner’ s Ray Kinsella and his dad in Field of Dreams, Gawron and Gay gently brought the baby down to safety.
Lastly, as the ladder was finally placed near the window, the adult began her descent. Under heavy stress and exiting the window feet first, she miscalculated and came down fast.
“ She didn’ t even touch the ladder,” Gay noticed.“ I wrapped my arms around her and started falling to the right and she fell onto us. It was pretty hectic.”
Talk about a summer catch. d
www. njcopsmagazine. com n SEPTEMBER 2016 49