DUNMORE, Pa. — Two Lackawanna County workers are being called heroes for springing into action to help save a life.
On the morning of October 2nd, Dunmore borough workers Pat Judge and Chris Rinaldi left the Department of Public Works to start their day.
"We were just coming into work like it was any old day, you know. Nothing special, just coming to our job," said Patrick Judge.
But then they saw a man trying to climb the fence on a bridge over Interstate 81.
"Well, we noticed him. He was climbing the fence line up there, and we knew something was going on at that point," described Chris Rinaldi, Dunmore DPW.
"We knew we had to do something, so we stopped and did what we could do," added Judge.
They relied on their training. Judge is a constable, and Rinaldi is a former Sheriff's Deputy. The duo quickly assessed the situation and approached the man in distress.
"We were able to talk him down, take the weapon off him; we knew the cops were gonna be there, so we wanted that to be a non-chaotic scene for him at that point," recalled Rinaldi.
As the men waited for police, Rinaldi and Judge say the three of them just sat down and talked.
"We just sat down and told him, 'You know it's gonna be ok. He was very agitated and very emotional most of the time; we just sat down and had a normal conversation with this gentleman," said Rinaldi.
"It's the way he was talking. You can tell he just wanted to get it out, and as he was talking, you could see him getting calmer, calmer," said Judge.
After the rescue, the borough honored both men with an award this week.
"It's the right thing to do: to reach out when a common man needs help. We're common men ourselves, and that's what we did that day. We helped him out," said Rinaldi.
Common men perform an uncommon act to save another person's life.
"I hope I never see it again," said Rinaldi.