Fireman Jumps Into Gowanus To Save Driver

NY Daily News 5/10/09

Firefighter Richard Staiti smelled trouble - and it was wafting from the dangerously polluted waters of the Gowanus Canal.
The FDNY veteran needed a hepatitis shot and an hour-long shower after pulling a drunken driver from a sinking Volvo in the stinking Brooklyn canal Saturday, authorities said.
"The smell was pretty bad," said Staiti, of Engine 239 in Park Slope. "It was cold water. Not the cleanest."
Staiti's stay in the putrid canal was extended when driver Elio Campa, 30, insisted there were kids in the car when it plunged into the canal around 12:30 a.m. A 20-minute search of the car and the surrounding area showed the driver was only rambling, authorities said.
Jully Rivera said her brother, a security guard at a Queens courthouse in Jamaica, was returning to his Sterling Place home after visiting his 5-year-old daughter at a Starrett City home she shares with her mom.
"He met the family of his little daughter," said Rivera, who lives with Campa. "Then he was going back home, and I don't really know what happened after that."

Staiti needed two shots after swallowing water from the canal, infamous for its high levels of cancer-causing PCBs, raw sewage and venereal bacteria.
The driver, suffering from a head laceration, was taken to New York Methodist Hospital. He was later charged with drunken driving, police said.
"He was happy to see me," Staiti recalled. "He was bleeding from the head."

lmcshane@nydailynews.com
With Wil Cruz and Jotham Sederstrom