It was Dec. 29, 2009, and there was trouble on Fire Street.
Robert Tyrczek had heard something.
Someone was calling for help in the swamp behind Tyrczek’s house.
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He called 911, and Chesterfield and Oakdale fire departments were dispatched.
The actions of the emergency services personnel on that cold December day probably saved a life, according to Oakdale Fire Chief Gary Murphy.
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MURPHY HONORED THE MEN on Wednesday, during the final meeting of the current Town Council.
Deputy Chief Bryce Wilkens, Lt. Mike Butterworth, firefighters James Brown, David Swinburne, David Leonard and Herbert Hicks, and Montville Police Officer Gregg Jacobson all received medals and ovations for saving the life of a man in trouble.
Murphy read a document that detailed the events of the day.
After Tyrczek called 911, the men entered the woods, and used a roof ladder to cross a stream. At a larger stream, the decision was made for some of the men to turn back.
Butterworth, Brown and Wilkens kept going. They crossed through brush, through water that sometimes reached their waists. Murphy wrote that they trudged through briars and freezing mud until they found the victim, up to his waist in icy water, and unable to extricate himself.
David Swinburne, Tim Condon and Eric Majewski worked their way into the woods then, carrying a ladder and a stokes basket, a sort of stretcher made of metal or wire, often used in search and rescue operations.
THE SIX-MAN RESCUE TEAM got the victim into the stretcher and dragged him through the woods and brush to safety. The men used ladders to bridge streams and creeks, sliding the stokes basket across the ladder while walking through the streams to guide it.
The final obstacle, Murphy wrote, was a 30-foot hill at a 75-degree angle. Firefighters on the road helped pull the stokes basket up.
By now, the men were wet, exhausted, nearly frozen. But they got the victim to safety.
He was taken by ambulance to Tyl Middle School, where a LifeStar helicopter flew him to Hartford Hospital.
THE TOWN COUNCIL CHAMBER WAS CROWDED Wednesday night with family members and friends of the emergency service workers. They took photographs, they talked about how proud they were, and they hugged and laughed and cried and applauded.
The honor might have been long in coming, but that didn’t make it any less special, family members said.
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