North, West Caldwell Firefighters To Be Honored

Submitted by North Caldwell Fire Department:

On May 7, 2014, the 200th Club of Essex County will be hosting the 48th Annual Valor Award Luncheon at which North Caldwell Firefighter Janice Stickles and West Caldwell Firefighters Thomas Bradley and Ryan Peter will receive a Valor Award. 

They were nominated by Fire Chief John D’Ascensio for their actions on the evening of June 12, 2013, when the West Caldwell Fire Department was playing a softball game at the Caldwell Kiwanis Oval. Shortly after the game, some of the players were gathering their equipment out of the dugout when a number of players started yelling “ CALL 911”. Tom Bradley turned into the dugout and found one of the Player/Firefighter Tim Zyla face down on the concrete and unresponsive. He rolled him over and checked for pulse and breathing. Both were faint.  Within a minute a Caldwell Police were on scene. Firefighter Ryan Peter assisted with Bag Valve Mask and provided ventilations to Tim, while Tom was keeping his air way open. Firefighter Janice Stickles who had been in the stands to watch the game came saw the commotion and ran over to assist. At this time, Tom could not locate a pulse on Tim and Tom yelled Janice to start chest compressions.

Tim had a slight pulse. Ryan, Janice and Tom continued with rescue breathing. As the WEFAS unit was pulling up, Tim’s pulse stopped again. They continued CPR, while loading Tim onto the stretcher. He again seemed to regain a slight pulse. He was transported to Mountainside Hospital where he was stabilized before being transported to the Cardiac Unit of Hackensack Medical Center. Two days later, Tim had open heart surgery to bypass 5 arteries and 1 stent. It was the opinion of his Cardiologist that had CPR not started as soon as it did that TIM would not have made it. It was because of their quick actions that they were able to save a life of a fellow firefighter.