Ray’s Heroes of the Day: Two Middletown men fight house fire

Risking their own lives is part of the job of anyone involved as a first responder.
But it goes beyond the realm of a job and becomes an act of heroism when ordinary citizens take it upon themselves to break into a home about to be engulfed in flames.

The two men, Mike Battaglioli and Pat Hussey are being designated as heroes for kicking down the door of a home in Leonardo to make sure no residents were inside.

Once there and having found no one inside, they then took it upon themselves to fight the fire with a garden hose.

Fire departments arrived on the scene shortly after a call was made, but police are crediting the quick-thinking neighbors with helping to fight the house fire, and also making sure no residents were home at the time.

Middletown Police Detective Lt. Stephen Dollinger credited them with their heroic actions.

The saga began when the duo was unloading some equipment from a truck by Battaglioli’s residence, which is across the street from the scene of the fire.

While doing so, both smelled smoke but saw nothing for about a good 20 minutes.
Once they did see smoke and noticed a car in the driveway, their first impulse was to kick in the door to find out if anyone was inside.

Satisfied that no one was there, they grabbed a garden hose and began dousing the flames until firemen arrived.

Battaglioli told Middletown Patch that despite their best efforts, they were always cognizant that someone could still have been upstairs.

“I’m just thanking God that no one was upstairs, because we just didn’t know. We couldn’t get up there, and we couldn’t see,” Battaglioli says.
Hussey added: “It’s the least we could do at the time.”

Middletown’s Mike Battaglioli and Pat Hussey – today’s Ray the Ray Heroes of the Day