CITY OF LOCKPORT: Firefighters, local businessman honored

Staff Reports
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

July 02, 2009 12:59 am

— Wednesday was “James Scapelliti, Kevin Pratt and Michael Barnwell Day” in the city.
So proclaimed Mayor Michael Tucker during the Common Council meeting Wednesday.
The proclamation recognized the life-saving efforts of three firefighters who went into a fire-stricken Vine Street house April 29 and rescued a trapped 2-year-old girl.
According to Fire Chief Tom Passuite, the men entered a house so filled with smoke, visibility was “near zero,” and found the girl six minutes after they arrived on the scene. The girl was unconscious in a bedroom and was hospitalized for a time, but has since fully recovered, he said.
The toddler, Neveah, and her mom, Karli Parker, were present for Tucker’s reading of the proclamation.
Three fire board commissioners presented commemorative firefighter statuettes to the three rescue heroes. Scapelliti received his from Commissioner Thomas O’Shea, his principal when Scapelliti was a student at Charles Upson Elementary School.
“These guys truly are heroes,” Commissioner Peter Robinson said. “Each one of them risked their lives (to save Neveah) ... and then they went back in again.”
Also receiving recognition Wednesday were Jean and John Lombardi, owner-operators of Lombardi Overhead Door on Richfield Street. John Lombardi opened the business 50 years ago, on July 1, 1959. His son, Common Council President John Lombardi III, read a mayoral proclamation celebrating the landmark anniversary of the always city-based, always family-held business.