Hightstown, East Windsor crews, volunteers aid in WTC mission

Several emergency crews and volunteers from the township and borough were on hand to help search and aid victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

By: Michael Arges and Scott Morgan
   "Ground zero" is becoming "Ground Hero" as EMTs, firefighters and other volunteers from around the area and around the country are thronging to Manhattan area to assist and support rescue and recovery workers at the World Trade Center.
   Several East Windsor and Hightstown volunteers were in the area in the days following the tragedy which struck Sept. 11.
   EMT crews from East Windsor went to the site of the World Trade Center terrorist attack on Sunday, Sept. 16, and crews were staged on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River on the day of the disaster. Several township police officers have been there as volunteers. The township’s fire marshal, Kevin Brink, was in New York as part of the New Jersey State Police Urban Search and Rescue Team.
   "Some of them in New York are calling it ‘Ground Hero,’ " noted Thomas Scavio, a member of the township’s District 1 Rescue Squad who went with other District 1 volunteers Sept. 16 to operate an aid station at South End Avenue at the World Trade Center.
   Sgt. Dean Raymond of the Hightstown Emergency Management Office said ambulance crews were dispatched to northern New Jersey over the course of the past 17 days. The squads have been dispatched to Teterboro, Liberty Park and the Meadowlands, he said
   According to the Hightstown First Aid Squad, teams have been sent five times so far.
   On Sept. 11, the day of the attacks, the First Aid Squad dispatched an eight-person ambulance crew, including Captain Bill Lecorchick, Joe Lecorchick, Curtis Crowell and Dave Goldberg of the Hightstown squad, along with four firefighters from Washington Township.
   The following day, Sept. 12, Bill and Joe Lecorchick and Jack and Peg Guyette of the Hightstown squad reported to northern Jersey.
   Thursday, Sept. 13, the Lecorchicks and the Guyettes returned with Nancy Boguszewski of the Hightstown squad.
   On Tuesday, Sept. 18, Bill and Joe Lecorchick returned to north Jersey again, while Jack and Peg Guyette returned Thursday.
   Sgt. Raymond said Hightstown emergency personnel continue to remain on alert and standby, at the request of the Mercer County Emergency Management Office.
   Mr. Scavio was very grateful for the emotional and other support provided as the crew made its way to the disaster site.
   "It was absolutely fantastic the support that we received from volunteers, from both the Jersey side and Newark and at Pier 59 in New York," Mr. Scavio added. "As you went through the checkpoints that were manned by the military, and got ID’d, there were crowds of people who clapped and cheered on all the emergency vehicles as they went by."
   Volunteers at the staging areas expressed their support in more practical ways, Mr. Scavio added. "They would make sure that you were fed and that you had supplies on your vehicle."
   The scene at the disaster site was almost overwhelming, Mr. Scavio noted.
   "They’re showing images on TV and they don’t really describe it well because you don’t get the smells and the sounds," he added. "There was a MASH-type tent with doctors from Boston where they set up the critical injury area, and we handled the less severe injuries, mostly of rescue workers."
   The impact of grief from going to the site was even greater than from first learning of the disaster through various media, said Sandy Farkas, who went to the disaster site with an East Windsor District 2 ambulance crew.
   "I went Sunday (Sept. 16), today’s Wednesday, and I’m still walking around in a fog. I don’t know how I’m getting to work — I just go," Ms. Farkas said. "I feel guilty; I don’t want to smile, I don’t want to laugh, I don’t want to enjoy myself. I only eat and sleep because I have to function."
   Like the District 1 squad, Ms. Farkas and her fellow crew members set up an aid station, mainly to help the rescue workers with smoke inhalation, inhaling too much dust, and illness from noxious fumes.
   "They refused to go home," she said of the rescuers. "They took a 10-minute break, had a cup of coffee and a sandwich and went back in."
   "And while we were there an Army truck came down with members of the armed forces — young boys. They looked maybe like 12," Ms. Farkas noted, "and they got a standing ovation from everybody because they are going to be on the front lines!"
   The full impact of the tragedy only hit Ms. Farkas when she got home from the mission last week.
   "There’s a levity there because you’re together and you need each other. It’s a time to really be together and hold each other and be there for each other," she said. "But when you come home, that’s when it really hits."
   Ms. Farkas said she hopes that the accident will lead to a new spirit of Americans volunteering to help each other.
   "Right now the world is like a big love-in. I hope it will last, and I think that it will," she observed. "I don’t think that this feeling about caring for one another will go away for a long time — and look at the price we had to pay for that! But people are finally accepting other people.
   "We’re all pretty uptight and miserable about this," Ms. Farkas added.
   Ambulance crews from both East Windsor EMT districts were on hand near Manhattan soon after the disaster Sept. 11. The District 1 crew was on hand at Liberty State Park in Jersey City and the District 2 crew was waiting at Weehawken. Tragically, the hoped-for stream of injured survivors never materialized.
   "That’s basically all that we did, was just wait, and it was very hard standing there waiting for something to happen where we could help," said Matthew Shane, who was on hand with the District 1 crew at Jersey City. "We could see right across the river to the buildings on fire; we could see the buildings collapsed. And everybody just wanted to do their part to help."