Officers Called 'Local Heroes' After Saving Pair From Fire

“There was no second thought about what I had to do,” Officer Jerome Pleasants said.

It was about 1:45 p.m. on March 2 when Det. Keith Boryseskne and Pleasants arrived at a Pleasant Valley Way garden apartment that was billowing smoke and had the intense heat of a two-alarm fire before a single fire truck had arrived.

“It’s all about safety of the people in the community,” Boryseskne explained.

Deciding there was little time to waste and with no fire protection equipment available, the West Orange detective and police officer headed into the apartment with complete disregard for their own lives, saving two others.

“It takes a different person to do what they did,” Fire Chief Peter F. Smeraldo Jr. said at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

Township officials and the council recognized the two local heroes and their families Tuesday night for their fearlessness in a dangerous situation.

“We have two police officers who are examples of heroic actions and bravery,” West Orange Council President Victor Cirilio said.

Despite years of departmental training the two officers received — Boryseskne as a school police officer and juvenile detective and Pleasants as a bias crimes investigator — it was more the heroic nature of the officers than their knowledge that saved those lives that day, Police Chief James Abbott said.

Boryseskne entered the apartment and rescued 72-year-old Elaine Sugerman, but told the detective her son was still inside.

The fire itself, which started in the basement and consumed it, would have heated the apartment to several hundred degrees at knee-level and more than 1,000 degrees above their heads by this point, Smeraldo said. 

He explained in similar fires, firefighters would enter through the chimney to safely avoid these the conditions, even with the protective clothing.

“What they did in a matter of seconds could have been more tragic than it was,” Smeraldo said.

Boryseskne re-entered the apartment and pushed through almost 30-feet of smoke and heat to find Robert Sugerman, 50, unconscious on the kitchen floor.

Boryseskne tried to pull Sugerman from the apartment, but was overcome by the conditions, Abbott explained.

At that time, Pleasants entered the apartment and the pair were able to bring Sugerman out of the apartment to safety.

“It was just to go in there and rescue the life that was inside there,” Pleasants said. “Actually it was two lives, one is my fellow officer and the other was a resident of the home.”

Mayor Robert Parisi added,” Life changes in a moment’s notice. I was on the phone with Keith [Boryseskne] not five minutes before he got to the fire and he got himself in the middle of the fire saving some of our residents.”