Daniel Keenan, a Roseland resident and West Orange firefighter, won the 200 Club Valour Award in July of 2019.
West Orange’s Police and Fire Departments responded to a report of a vehicle crash with injuries.
Police arrived to find the driver of one of the vehicles unresponsive, while Daniel Keenan and others on the fire department found an unresponsive man on the shoulder as well as additional people with injuries from another accident.
While the police and fire departments were tending to the accident scene, a food truck attempted to pass between a police car blocking the middle lane and the crash scene. The food truck was stopped by police and fire personnel, but a chain reaction and multi-car collision then occurred involving a dump truck, police cars, fire trucks, and other drivers on the highway. One of the fire engines was struck in the chain reaction, and first responders inside the rescue truck rendering aid to the unresponsive patient were propelled around and struck cabinets and each other before coming to rest. Daniel Keenan rushed to the rescue truck to help, as there were now both injured first responders and car accident victims on the scene.
All injured first responders and civilians were transported to area hospitals and received further treatment.
“The borough would like to join the 200 Club of Essex County to recognise all of the first responders that day, but especially Roseland’s own, Daniel Keenan, for their heroic life-saving efforts under the dangerous and chaotic conditions that unfolded at the scene,” Roseland Mayor James Spango said in a post on the Roseland Borough website.