Hurricane Sandy and a tornado were just two of the many terrifying events members of the Stafford Township Volunteer Fire Company have deal with. Yet according to them, neither compared to Tuesday's frightening gas explosion that nearly took their lives.
"It was surreal," said Stafford Township firefighter Matt Dodds. "Your body couldn't process it fast enough."
Dodds, along with Fire Chief Jack Johnson and firefighters John Fugee, Rick Pumhrey, George Yockachonis and Al Merlino were among the 15 people who were injured after a gas explosion leveled a Stafford Township home.
The ordeal began Tuesday around 8:55 a.m. when police received a call for an odor inspection on Oak Avenue in the Cedar Run neighborhood of the township near U.S. Route 9. Officers, firefighters and emergency crews who were dispatched to the neighborhood quickly confirmed a gas leak, called in the New Jersey Natural Gas Company and evacuated 75 nearby homes.
Investigators later determined the gas leak was caused by a cracked 2-inch steel main distribution line buried underneath Oak Avenue. As the workers searched for the source of the leak, the gas made its way along a water line from the street to the basement of an Oak Avenue home. It was then ignited by an open flame from utilities inside the home, causing the explosion.
"All I saw was a wall of flame come at me," Johnson said.
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The six firefighters, along with seven gas company workers and two EMS workers were all injured in the blast. Despite suffering concussions and temporary hearing loss, the firefighters bravely went back to rescue the seven injured gas workers, including two who were covered under a pile of debris.
"Boom, the house explodes," Fugee said. "And now we're trying to help those guys."
The firefighters tended to the two most seriously injured gas workers, Dean Barnett and Ed Jones.
"We dragged him," Dodds said. "We did a body drag into the next yard across the street and continued to work on him."
Newly released dashcam video shows the explosion as well as the aftermath. In the video, Fugee and Dodds are heard reacting after feeling a pulse from Barnett.
"He's breathing! He's breathing," they scream. "Breathe buddy! You got it buddy! Come on! Breathe man!"
Barnett is currently in critical condition at the Atlanticare Regional Medical Center Trauma Unit in Atlantic City. Jones was treated at Atlanticare and later released. Jones told NBC10 he did not want to talk about the explosion but was glad to be home.
The firefighters, the five other gas workers and the EMS workers were all treated and released from the hospital. As they watched the video of the explosion for the first time Wednesday night, the firefighters wondered how they managed to survive.
"The house is 100 to 200 feet from us and the windows blew up," said Merlino. "And we're here. We're still in one piece."
"Somebody or something, someone above, was looking out for us," Fugee said.
For Chief Johnson, how his firefighters responded to the blast was a reflection of their character.
"I got the best," he said. "In my heart, they're the best fire department there is."
