Boro employees honored for saving sewer worker BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer SAYREVILLE - Three municipal employees have been credited with saving a man who had fallen into a large hole and became buried when the walls collapsed on him. MICHAEL ACKER Richard Bauman, Joseph Damion and Kevin Kania (front, from left) hold up their certificates of commendation at the March 10 Borough Council meeting. Behind them are (from left) Councilman Rory Zach, Councilwoman Kathy Makowski, Mayor Kennedy O'Brien and council President Dennis Grobelny. The water and sewer department employees were in the area of Iroquois Court andMohawk Lane to work on a sewer line around 3 p.m. Feb. 29 when they observed a private contractor who was working on the sewer line fall into the hole, according to Santo Triolo, head of the borough's water and sewer department. The three workers, Richard Bauman, Joseph Damion and Kevin Kania, called for an emergency squad to come to the scene as they worked to dig the man out of the 10- to 12-foot-deep hole, and assisted two other private contractors who had jumped in to help. When they ultimately got the man out of the hole, his arms were blue from being stuck after the sides collapsed on top of him, said Triolo, who spoke of the acts of heroism during a recent Borough Council meeting. Kania, 47, told the Suburban that the private contractors were there to work on a collapsed pipe in a resident's sewer line, which connects to the borough's main line. He said that he and the other two borough employees were there to clean up any debris that might fall in the area. "We were standing right there and he went in the hole and he was trying to clear out the lateral," Kania said. "He was on all fours straddling the pipe and his face was where the opening was." When the wall collapsed on the private contractor, his two coworkers immediately jumped in to get him out. "The wall just buried him," Kania said. "His two [coworkers] jumped in first, while Richie and I were standing by the pole." Kania and Bauman jumped in shortly after to help the private contractors dig the buried man out. "It happened and you don't even think," Kania said. "You just do what you're doing." They were digging out the victim and yanking at his clothing as they dug him out, Kania said. "The first thing I saw from him was his right arm and it was blue," Kania said. "I don't know how this kid made it." During this time, Damion was calling for emergency services, who arrived to help dig out the victim. Mayor Kennedy O'Brien described the hole that the worker was stuck in as a deep trench. He said the borough employees dug furiously to save the man's life. "If it wasn't for these three men, we would have had a fatality," O'Brien said. Kania said this was the first time that he had to help rescue someone in this kind of situation. He noted that a man did die years ago in Sayreville after being buried during a cave-in incident. In this case, had the borough employees not been there to witness the cave-in, it is possible that nobody would have noticed the problem from a distance, he said. "If you turned your head and turned back, there was no sign that anybody was in the hole," Kania said. "If you didn't see it happen, you would never know someone was in the hole." Borough Council President Dennis Grobelny said the municipal employees, all residents of Sayreville, are to be commended for saving the man's life by jumping in the hole. The mayor and council honored the three men during the March 10 council meeting and presented them with a proclamation of gratitude for their actions.