Orwell men honored for crash response
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Lauren Mordasky, Mark Mordasky, Jessie Gagnon, Matthew Carpentier, Rich Gagnon, Steve Gagnon and Sean LeSage (from left to right). The Orwell Volunteer Fire Department honored Mordasky, Richard Gagnon, Steven Gagnon and Sean LeSage for assisting with a car crash in Orwell. GORDON DRITSCHILO / RUTLAND HERALD |
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By Gordon Dritschilo Staff Writer - Published: October 7, 2009
ORWELL — A lot of people have told Mark Mordasky he should be a volunteer firefighter.
"I'm busy enough, but I'm considering it because everybody's asking," he said.
The Orwell Volunteer Fire Department honored Mordasky on Monday night along with three of their own — Richard Gagnon, Steven Gagnon and Sean LeSage — for charging into a burning car without protective gear and pulling a woman and her two small children from the wreckage.
Each man received a citation saying he "prevented what surely would have been a fatal outcome."
The woman, Heather M. Carpentier, 24, of Hinesburg, was recently ordered held without bail on charges of violating her parole and drunken driving, among others, in connection with the Sept. 18 accident.
Police said one of the two children, 4-year-old Max, was in a booster seat rather than a proper child safety seat and suffered a severed spine as a result of the accident.
The other child, 1-year-old Matthew, attended the ceremony Tuesday with his aunt, Brandy LaRock. Several of the firefighters paused to say hello to or play with Matthew, and one commented that he was much happier than the last time they saw him. LaRock said Matthew was recovering.
"He was cranky the first couple nights," she said. "He had a lot of bruising."
Though he was better physically, LaRock said Matthew was still having trouble adjusting.
"Max and him were really close and Max isn't there anymore," she said.
Max, LaRock said, is in stable but critical condition. He can move his arms, she said, but is paralyzed from the chest down. She said he is on a respirator, but his doctors are cutting back on his sedation in an effort to get him breathing on his own.
LaRock said Max kept pinching at his legs, wondering why he could not feel or move them. Still, she said he was able to communicate and seemed to be improving.
"Every day I look at him he looks better," she said.
Mordasky said he was upstairs in his home at the time of the crash, in which police said Carpentier hit another car on Route 22A.
"I didn't see anything, just heard a big crash," he said. "I ran out, looked at what was going on."
The car had slid down his lawn, he said, into a ditch between his house and that of father and son Richard and Steven Gagnon. Mordasky said he had some emergency training for six years in the U.S. Marine Corps and time in the Boy Scouts, and instantly joined the Gagnons and the visiting LeSage in the rescue effort.
"We were there about a minute after the crash," he said. "It probably took another minute to get the driver calmed down. By the time I stood up with her, the smoke was heavy enough I would have been choking."
Orwell Fire Chief Louis Hall presented Mordasky, LeSage and the Gagnons with large framed certificates in the brief ceremony. Vermont State Police Lt. Bruce Melendy said he also intends to honor the men at a police awards ceremony later in the year.
"This is, by itself, above and beyond the call of duty and, yet, it's what we do," Orwell firefighter Sandy Korda said. "Recognition of a job well done is immediate and timely. This is one of those occasions. Each of these individuals deserves this recognition."
gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com
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