{"id":1208,"date":"2022-10-06T11:56:48","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T15:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/?p=1208"},"modified":"2022-10-06T11:56:48","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T15:56:48","slug":"heroes-among-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/2022\/10\/06\/heroes-among-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Heroes Among Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

University employee Brian Warner and his fellow volunteer firefighters rescued 15 people and two dogs from Ida\u2019s floodwaters<\/strong><\/p>\n

On September 1, unprecedented hourly rainfall from Tropical Storm Ida led to sudden rushing waters that flooded buildings and streets and, tragically, took the lives of 30 people across New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Brian Warner, a technology support desktop specialist at the Feliciano School of Business, was working that night to save as many lives as possible. He and his fellow firefighters from the Hawthorne Volunteer Fire Department rescued 15 people and two dogs from swiftly moving waters throughout the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the guys did such a wonderful job. They were dealt a dirty hand and went through six hours of living hell,\u201d says Hawthorne Fire Chief Joe Speranza.<\/p>\n

For the past 30 years, Warner, who has worked for the University since 2013 and is currently earning his bachelor\u2019s degree here, has volunteered during his off hours as a firefighter in Hawthorne.<\/p>\n

Uncomfortable in the spotlight, Warner stressed the collaborative nature of the rescues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a team,\u201d says Warner, an ex-assistant chief in Company 5. \u201cIt\u2019s not me. It\u2019s all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes back to the team concept,\u201d says Speranza. \u201cA good fire officer will let his knowledge lead the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outlining the details of a series of boat and \u201cwalk-in\u201d rescues, Warner says he had just finished a pre-session with his ECON 101 professor, then spoke to his 18-year-old son, Logan, a probationary firefighter who was at the firehouse doing a truck check. Warner was put on standby around 8 p.m. and shortly afterward went out on his first call to save motorists from flooded cars.<\/p>\n

Warner recounted one rescue where maneuvering the boat was difficult due to the rapid movement of the water, necessitating a \u201cwalk-in\u201d rescue. He detailed how multiple firefighters are needed to walk each person out of a flood rescue because of hazards such as manhole covers floating out when waters rise and pressure equalizes. \u201cIf you fall into that, you\u2019re not coming out,\u201d says Warner.<\/p>\n

After trying unsuccessfully with the boat, Warner, along with Captain Anthony Manzo and Firefighter Brandon Frei, \u201cbrought the boat back, put it in a driveway. Got in a triangle, put the strongest guy up front and locked arms.\u201d The firefighters walked through the water in triangle formation to the car to rescue the motorist.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd this is all while it\u2019s downpouring,\u201d says Warner.<\/p>\n

After several more rescues, they returned to the firehouse after 1:30 a.m. to reset and prepare their equipment \u2013 \u201cin case we had to go back out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI got home about 3 a.m. and then I said to my wife, \u2018I need to be up at 6:30,\u2019 because it\u2019s the first day of school and if you want to do the job, you\u2019ve still got to do your other job. That\u2019s the one thing I tell my son: \u2018You can come out and answer calls, but don\u2019t think you\u2019re not going to school.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Warner says he returned on Saturday and Sunday to the firehouse to go out and look for missing Montclair State student Ayush Rana and Rana\u2019s friend Seton Hall student Nidhi Rana. The two went missing in Passaic; sadly, their bodies were later found in Kearny..<\/p>\n

Brian Warner works as a technology support desktop specialist at the Feliciano School of Business. In his off hours, he is a volunteer firefighter and is working on his bachelor\u2019s degree at Montclair.<\/p>\n

The work never ends. Warner says that the department has already started more boat rescue training. \u201cI\u2019ve been in Floyd, Irene, Sandy and now this. I\u2019ve been in all four hurricanes and superstorms on the boat, in our town, in the water, but it\u2019s something different every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warner, 49, is working toward a BA in Business Administration\/Management at Montclair State. Logan is following in his dad\u2019s footsteps in more ways than one. Beyond their shared rescue work, Logan plans to attend the University next year. Second son, Sean, 13, will follow in a few more years. Warner credits his wife Kathleen for supporting his volunteer work: \u201cI couldn\u2019t do it without her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not at all surprising that Brian is a volunteer firefighter,\u201d says Brian\u2019s boss Roger Salomon, director of Technology Services for the Feliciano School of Business. \u201cTo a fault, he always wants to help. I remember the pride I felt the time I saw a water rescue on the news where Brian was in a wetsuit saving someone from drowning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salomon says that Warner also goes \u201cabove and beyond to help the faculty, staff and students of the Feliciano School of Business and the University.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn line with the University\u2019s mission of maintaining a learning community, Brian\u2019s love for knowledge sharing is the same with our student technical assistants,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s what makes our team so strong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University employee Brian Warner and his fellow volunteer firefighters rescued 15 people and two dogs from Ida\u2019s floodwaters On September 1, unprecedented hourly rainfall from Tropical Storm Ida led to sudden rushing waters that flooded buildings and streets and, tragically, took the lives of 30 people across New Jersey. Brian Warner, a technology support desktop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-friends"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}