The municipal council will honor four Parking Enforcement employees this Wednesday for the brave actions they took during a fire last year. On Nov. 16, four members of the Jersey City Parking Authority raced into a burning building and helped evacuate nine families and almost 20 small children before the first fire trucks arrived at the scene. “I’m very proud of them,” Executive Director of the Parking Authority, Carmine Venezia, beamed last week. According to Diane Freudenberg, who was walking her beat on Central Avenue, a building right across the street from the Parking Authority headquarters was spitting flames out of an open front window. Once the call was placed to the Jersey City Fire Department, Acting Enforcement Director David Lerner, Lt. Fernando Picariello and parking enforcement officer Vincent McCabe dashed into the burning building to evacuate as many tenants as possible. “Something like that,” Lerner said, “you don’t think. You just go.” “We had a very difficult time getting in the front door because it was bolted,” McCabe said. Finally inside, the officers began knocking on doors and ringing bells to alert the unsuspecting occupants of the building at the intersection of Central Avenue and Thorne Street that they were in danger. Residents emerged from their apartments clutching as many belongings as they could carry. “The smoke was incredible,” Picariello said. McCabe attempted to scale the fire escape hanging from the front of the building, while Lerner – who is hobbled by two bad knees – also helped to evacuate the adjoining stores on the ground floor of the shopping district building. While the three darted in and out of the building, Freudenberg directed traffic in the street out front. “If we didn’t get there,” Freudenberg said, “who knows what could have happened.” The four maintained first response stability until being relieved by the police and fire department soon after. Once the smoke cleared and the fire was extinguished, no injuries were reported on either the part of the residents of the building or the Parking Authority responders. “Afterwards, when you think about it,” Lerner said, “then you get nervous about what could have happened.” According to Parking Authority officials, this was not the first time the agency has been the first on-scene responders to emergencies. Last year Picariello came to the aid of a car accident victim pinned under a car. “One of the things they do out there is create a presence,” Venezia said. “If someone needs help, they can use their radios.” “It’s part of our job,” Lerner said. “We’re public servants. The Fire Department has a very tough job, and I give them a lot of credit.” Trained in CPR by the Jersey City Police, the parking employees are sometimes the only uniformed personnel on the scene the moment an emergency presents itself. “We don’t just give tickets out,” Lerner said. “We’re out there to help the public.”
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