HARMONY — Monday, June 5, was a special day for the Harmony Fire District and several area first responders.

The fire district was given a grain silo rescue tube from the Butler County Farm Bureau before firefighters, police officers and paramedics were recognized by UPMC for saving the life of a Zelienople business owner and Vietnam veteran who suffered a heart attack while driving on a rainy night in April.

Farm bureau representatives Evelyn Minteer and James Boldy presented the rescue tube that the bureau purchased by raising money.

The rescue tube is the fourth that the bureau has purchased for volunteer fire departments in the county. The others have been given to the Prospect, North Washington and Saxonburg volunteer fire departments.

The bureau donated the tube, which cost more than $3,500, and $1,000 for the district to train firefighters how to use.

Minteer said the bureau raised most of the money at its basket raffle held during the Butler County Farm Show.

Harmony Fire District Chief Scott Garing said firefighters will practice assembling and disassembling the tube before scheduling formal training in its use.

The tube has an auger that firefighters use to free a person trapped in a silo filled with grain.

“It’s like quick sand,” Minteer said of grain in a silo.

After the rescue tube presentation, the emergency responders gathered inside the fire station where Cheryl Rickens, of UPMC’s prehospital care unit and chairman of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association, presented nine of them with certificates of recognition and bar pins to wear on their uniforms for saving the life of 76-year-old Joseph Maddalon on April 28.

The awards were presented to Harmony Fire District Capt. Matt Springer, firefighters Carly Pelletier, Ken Chiacchia and Capt. Scott Fredrick, who was not present; Zelienople Police officers Steven Gilbert and Thomas Goldie; Quality EMS emergency medical technician Shaun Burke and paramedic Sarah Johnson; and UPMC Passavant Advanced Response Unit paramedic David McWilliams. Maddalon received a survivor’s medal.

An off-duty nurse who assisted did not wish to be recognized.

“I would like to thank all of you firemen, police and EMS,” Maddalon said. “Thank you, all of you.”

Rickens said a “chain of survival” involving the efforts of the first responders led to Maddalon joining the “10% club” of people who survive a heart attack outside of a hospital.

“We’re here to recognize and celebrate the chain of survival,” Rickens said.

Maddalon was driving on Main Street when he suffered a heart attack that caused his car to hit a utility pole around 10:15 p.m. It was a low-speed crash, but impactful enough to trap him in the car.

Springer said he heard the radio dispatch for district to respond to the crash while he was driving home from a friend’s house, and went to the scene.

Several people including the nurse were already there and trying to reach Maddalon. Springer said he made a call on his radio and the people who got there before him broke a window and entered the car by the time he returned. The nurse started performing CPR, he said.

Springer said other responders then arrived, removed Maddalon from the car, continued CPR, helped him breath, and took him to UPMC Presbyterian. He was discharged May 5.

“It was a good team effort to bring him back,” Springer said. “It was a good, positive outcome.”

He deflected credit to the good Samaritans who who arrived before him.

“They made access to the vehicle and started the whole thing. It was patient care by the time I got there,” Springer said.

Pelletier, who was an EMT, but not yet a certified firefighter at the tine, arrived with other members of the fire district.

“We got him out of the car and got a pulse back, got his airway open. We were breathing for him until Squad 98 (UPMC Passant Advanced Response Unit) arrived,” she said.

Monday was extra special for Pelletier because her firefighter’s certification arrived that day.

She called Springer the “anchor man” of the effort.

Chiacchia said he helped with the breathing bag, but said Springer and Pelletier deserve the credit.

Maddalon said he remembers trying to avoid the utility pole, but he wasn’t able to use his hand to steer the car or his feet to apply the brakes.

He said he woke up in the hospital.

“It felt like train running through my chest.” said Maddalon, who owns Maddalon Jewelers in Zelienople. He said he works part-time and his son runs the business.

He said contact with Agent Orange while he served in Vietnam had led to his heart problems.