Heroes among us

Vernon volunteer firefighters save cats, horses -- and people Vernon - Mistakenly or not, people frequently look to sports figures or celebrities as heroes. But some of the most courageous people are often the least visible and happen to live right in your own community. Take Trevor Badu, a 27-year-old Vernon resident who lays water and sewer mains for Schenley Construction in West Milford. While most Sussex County residents were tucked away in their warm homes on the bitterly cold night of Dec. 14, Badu and other members of the Vernon Township Fire Department and the Highland Lakes Fire Company were braving sub-zero temperatures in their efforts to rescue a stranded cat for a distressed homeowner. The previous night, Highland Lakes resident Mary Mester was working on her computer when Raven, one of seven cats she has rescued over the past few years, kept pestering her to go outside. After she let him out, Raven knocked over a snow shovel near the door “and it freaked him out,” recalls Mester. When she ventured out in the sub-freezing temperatures to catch him, Raven ran away and climbed to the top of a 25-foot maple tree between her property and a neighbor’s house. Throughout the night, as the temperature plunged below zero, Mester checked periodically on the black cat, made visible at the top of the tree by a near full moon that night and audible by his occasional meowing. After a fitful night’s sleep, Mester called the Vernon Police Department the following morning. They suggested she leave some food under the tree for Raven and try calling Vernon’s Animal Control Department for assistance. During a break at Merriam Avenue Elementary School in Newton where Mester is a physical education and health teacher, she called the animal control department and was told they don’t rescue cats from trees. She then called her wood supplier who recommended calling the fire department. She also contacted a tree surgeon who wanted to charge her $150 to $200 “just to climb the tree,” she said. At her wits’ end, Mester called the Vernon Police Department again. They told her they’d get in touch with the Vernon Fire Department and that she should call again if the situation hadn’t changed when she returned home from work. That evening, the police told her that the Vernon Fire Department would come to her house sometime after 5 p.m. A neighborhood boy and his friend also offered to bring a ladder over but Mester was concerned about the proximity of power lines to the tree. Shortly thereafter, Highland Lakes Fire Company Chief Judy Thomas arrived along with Asst. Chief Neil Perrotta and reassured Mester that the Vernon Fire Department would coordinate a rescue effort. At 7 p.m., eight members of the Vernon Fire Department, including Capt. Greg Carter, Lt. Joe Robibero and firefighters Bryan Rivers, and Vincent Caratozzolo of Vernon; and Richard Carson arrived in a large fire truck that was difficult to navigate around the narrow street, thus making it impossible for the firemen to position the truck’s ladder near the tree. After discussing their options, Badu decided to scale the tree on his own, though he was hardly dressed for it. According to Vernon Fire Chief Gerry Ousterhoudt, the town’s firefighters have to respond to situations in full gear to meet insurance requirements. That meant Badu would have to climb the tree in his bulky fireman’s boots. But that didn’t faze him. “I’ve always been a tree climber,” said Badu, whose conditioning is apparent from his days as a top-class swimmer for Vernon Valley High School’s championship swim teams in the mid-1990s - a role which helped earn him a partial scholarship to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Still, Badu had several strikes against him before reaching the first branch. Besides his ill-fitting boots, Badu had only recently recovered from a severe ankle injury suffered during a motorcycle accident last spring, to say nothing of a damaged knee that forced him out of the Army prematurely in 2002. Plus, the single-digit temperatures made the tree branches extremely brittle, especially as they thinned out towards the top of the tree where Raven was perched. Badu tried coaxing Raven down “but it kept howling,” he said. After a neighborhood boy stopped by with a handsaw, Badu and his teammates hatched an idea about cutting off the top of the tree. “It was the first time we’d done something like this,” said Badu. While Badu took the saw, several firefighters climbed onto the roof of the neighboring house and threw a rope around the top of the tree for leverage. As Badu started sawing and the top of the tree started to bend, Raven fell onto the top of the neighbor’s A-frame roof and then tumbled onto the deck. Chief Thomas then captured Raven and brought him into Mester’s house to warm him up and evaluate him. After seeing a spot of blood on the floor, Mester took Raven to Newton Animal Hospital. Though an X-ray revealed no broken bones, the vets noticed that Raven’s left front paw was punctured. After a week of rest and antibiotics, Raven’s tail became stiff, so Mester had to have it amputated. But he’s recovering well, says Mester, and back to his old self. “He’s a sprite and rambunctious cat. He’s the ringleader that gets the other cats going,” she said. Mester had strong praise for all of the firefighters who helped out. “I’ve spoken to people in other towns and they said their fire departments never come out” for animal rescues, said Mester. Vernon Chief Ousterhoudt said his fire company doesn’t have a specific policy for animal rescues - it simply responds when people ask for help. Mester is particularly grateful to Badu for risking his own neck to save Raven. “It’s like something out of a movie,” said Mester. “It was very heroic.” Badu downplays the event and other animal rescues he’s been involved in, citing the collective efforts of all of the firefighters involved. “To Mary it was a big deal. To me, it was just climbing a tree,” he said. Last winter, Badu helped rescue a horse owned by a fellow firefighter that fell through three inches of ice in a brook off Route 515. As one of the last emergency workers to arrive on the scene, which included his fire company and Vernon and Hardyston police officers, Badu quickly stepped in to relieve one of the rescuers in the bone-chilling, waist-deep water. After 15 minutes, he and other rescuers were able to get the horse to its feet using ropes and lead it to safety, but not before several of them suffered acute hypothermia, including Badu. Badu, an affecting and principled young man who spent 7 years in the town’s ambulance squad, just shrugs it off. “I like animals,” he said. “You’re there to help in any situation you can.” Still, Badu, who is the proud father of an 18 month-old boy named Maximus (so named for Russell Crowe’s character in the 2000 epic ‘Gladiator’), said he wished that volunteer firefighters would get the respect they deserve. “People think we’re out there chasing fires and getting drunk, which isn’t fair,” said Badu. “They’d have a different impression if they were on the scene of a car accident where we’ve had to put someone in a body bag.” But he doesn’t have to convince Mary Mester. “I can’t thank them enough for everything they did,” she said.