Heroic Actions During Hurricane Sandy Earn Livingston Resident Valor Award

A Livingston resident was awarded recently for his heroic actions during Hurricane Sandy. 

Sheriff's Det. Fitzgerald Figliuolo, of Livingston, was presented with a Valor Award by The 200 Club of Essex County for rescuing five people from flood waters during the height of Hurricane Sandy. Figliuolo was congratulated by Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura, County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. and 200 Club President Arthur Guida.

Additional Valor Awards were given to Officers Giuseppe Forgione, Dennis Kihlberg, George Sona and Ryan Udvarhely. A Meritorious Service Award was also presented to Sgt. Gabriel Rispoli. 

The Rescue

During Sandy emergency, county Office of Emergency Management dispatched a squad of officers and an array of emergency vehicles to the PSE&G generating station on Raymond Boulevard in Newark. 

Workers were trapped inside the facility due to dangerous flooding conditions.

Following consultation with the on-site supervising officer Rispoli, and officers Sona and Kihlberg were charged with navigating our high-water rescue vehicle to this location.  

The hazardous journey forced the officers to dodge washed out areas, downed power lines and debris while traveling through black-out conditions and 90 mph winds.

At the generating station, Newark firefighters were loaded into the vehicle’s cargo area. The plan was to smash through the station’s locked front gate and rescue the workers.

The waters, however, continued to get deeper and the rescue vehicle strained to keep up speed. Nearing their target, the ramming plan was abandoned for fear the gate might be electrified.

Now, in 7-foot waters, the rescue truck was sucked into a ditch by a strong whirlpool. Sona and Kihlberg righted the truck and the firefighters were deposited on high ground.

Officers Forgione then arrived on the scene with Marine – 1, county OEM’s rescue boat.  

While assessing the best location to launch the boat, a massive explosion, illuminating the night sky, emanated from within the generating plant.

PSE&G engineers determined that the explosion may have electrified the water inside the plant and that it was unsafe to enter the facility.

Rispoli assigned officers Figliuolo, Udvarhely and Forgione to conduct a search of the immediate area in hopes of locating and rescuing stranded victims of the storm.  

As the officers drove along Raymond Boulevard, a 12-foot-high concrete retaining wall to collapsed, engulfing both SUV’s in flood waters.

Soon, the SUV’s were completely submerged and the electronic sensors on both dashboards lit up like Christmas trees.

As the SUV’s began to be sucked out into the Passaic River, and fearing they would have to swim for their lives, the officers began stripping off their clothes and bulletproof vests while trying to control their vehicles.

Still submerged, the force of the hurricane then began to push the SUV’s back towards shore with Marine – 1 now disengaged from its tow trailer and riding parallel to one of the SUV’s.

The SUV’s finally settled on solid roadway, their engines were gunned and the vehicles slowly arose from the depths.

Here, Figliuolo, Udvarhely and Forgione rescued five storm victims, including a security guard who was asleep in his car and unaware of the rapidly deteriorating conditions around him.

Under Rispoli’s supervision, all officers and victims were now loaded into the rescue vehicle and it plowed through rising waters to safety.

Two hours later, after dodging more downed power lines and several exploding transformers, the all on board the truck arrived safely back at EOC headquarters where they were provided with blankets, hot coffee and food.