WWW.NJCOPSMAGAZINE.COM ■ DECEMBER 2014
Boturla saves a
life… again
At the 2013 PBA
Valor Awards Ceremony, Beach Boro
Local 106 Officer
Kyle
Boturla
received a Lifesaving Award for rescues
during
Superstorm Sandy,
proving that water
is no match for
him. This time
around, Boturla
faced fire for his
Police Officer
2014
Lifesaving
Award.
Kyle Boturla
In the early
Beach Boro
hours of Sept. 18,
Local 106
2013, Boturla was
first on scene at a
reported structure
fire, and found an active fire in a home with a
car in the driveway, signaling that the homeowner was likely still inside. Since the front of
the house was fully engulfed in flames, making entry through the front door impossible,
Boturla ran around to the back of the home
and located a rear door.
Boturla, who is also a nine-year veteran volunteer firefighter, kicked in the door, and was
immediately met with heavy smoke and
intense heat, forcing him to crawl into the
home.
“I don’t know if my firefighter instincts
kicked in,” he pondered, “but I went inside the
house and I was crawling around on the floor
looking for the resident.”
Through pitch-black darkness mixed with
the heat from the fire, Boturla located the
homeowner, face down and unconscious.
Boturla dragged the man out of the rear door
where he was loaded into an ambulance,
awake and alert.
“Knowing what I did and hearing that he
will make a full recovery,” said Boturla after the
incident, “it’s a good feeling.”
59
Past fire chief uses old skills to save woman
For one Lacey Township resident, it’s a good
thing that Local 238 Patrolman Michael Eden
happens to be a volunteer firefighter.
On Oct. 18, 2013, while on patrol, Eden
observed flames coming from a residence
where as many as six residents lived.
Arriving on scene, Eden saw two adult
males who had made their way out of the
home but indicated that other family members were still inside.
Since the front of the home was fully
engulfed in flames, Eden made his way
around to the backyard by kicking through a
secured gate. There, he found three other family members. They indicated that their adult
pregnant daughter was still trapped.
Upon hearing her screaming, Eden, who
is a past chief of the Bamber Lake Fire Company in Forked River, as well as a firefighter
with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service,
climbed up onto an air conditioning unit
and smashed a window to a bedroom with
his arm. While
thick smoke was
billowing out, he
climbed halfway
into the window
while continuing to
yell for the woman.
“You have to act,
you have to go in,” Patrolman Michael Eden
Eden stated. “You
Lacey Township
have lives in danger
Local 238
and you don’t have
time to wait for
(backup). You just have to make a decision at
that point and do the right thing.”
Based on his yelling, the woman was able
to locate Eden, at which time he quickly
pulled her through the window to safety.
“It’s a great honor,” said Eden’s wife, Liza.
“But he’s a hero every day; everybody else
just found out.”
What does it take to save a life?
Detective Donald Sretenovic
Patrolman Joseph DiParisi
New Providence Local 132
What does it take for law enforcement officers to save the
life of a woman trapped in an overturned car on fire?
Proper training. Guts. Fearlessness.
Well, all of that, but South Amboy Patrolman Joseph
DiParisi and Detective Donald Sretenovic realized there’s
more to it.
“Teamwork,” they each said, not coincidentally, in unison.
“It definitely makes a difference,” DiParisi noted.
Added Sretenovic: “Once I saw Joe in the car, he made it
easy for me to get in and help.”
On May 14, New Providence police and fire units responded to the report of an overturned
vehicle with the occupant still inside. DiParisi was the first officer to arrive on scene and observed
the vehicle on its roof and smoking.
Not knowing where the smoke was coming from, Patrolman DiParisi began kicking in the window of the vehicle to gain entry and crawled inside to unbuckle her seatbelt and lower her down
out of the seat. At this time, Sretenovic climbed inside through a smashed-in back window, and
together they brought the woman out to safety.
DiParisi injured his leg and ankle and Sretenovic received several cuts to his arms from broken glass. But that couldn’t stop them.
“You don’t feel anything,” DiParisi said. “It’s just all instinct.”
West Orange heroes pull two from
burning apartment
Patrolman Michael Kelly
Patrolman Steven Clark
South Amboy PBA Local 63
woman out the house. As it turned out, that was
the easy part compared to what happened next.
“The hardest part was keeping her out of the
house because she wanted to go back in to find her
dog,” Kelly noted.
Both officers went in for a third time to try to
locate the dog but the heat and smoke proved to be
too intense. Still, in his first few days on the job,
Clark learned perhaps the most valuable lesson of
being a law enforcement officer.
“You have to be ready for anything,” he said.
“You have to be on your toes.”
Central Communications dispatched
patrol units on a report of a structure fire
at an apartment complex, and West
Orange Local 25 Detective Keith
Boryeskne was the first emergency
responder at the scene.
Upon arrival, he observed heavy
smoke emanating from an apartment.
Boryeskne risked his life to enter and rescue the disoriented elderly resident from
the densely smoke-filled apartment.
She then informed Boryeskne that her
developmentally disabled adult son was
still inside the apartment. Boryeskne
reentered the apartment, and on the
kitchen floor he was able to see feet poking through the heavy black smoke.
Police Officer Jerome Pleasants
Detective Keith Boryeskne
West Orange Local 25
With the assistance of Officer Jerome
Pleasants who had just arrived,
Boryeskne carried the unconscious man
to safety. Both officers were treated for
smoke inhalation.
“Police officers are often the first on
scene and often have to take action without the proper precautions just out of
instinct,” emphasized West Orange Local
25 State Delegate Mike Cassidy. “Thankfully everyone was able to make it out
without being seriously injured.”