Training from PSE&G helped Paul Manzi save a 9-year-old girl when he jumped between her and an attacking pit bull with just an umbrella.
Manzi, a PSE&G employee, was stopped at a traffic light on Mount Prospect Avenue in Newark when he saw a little girl running down the street trying to get away from a chasing pit bull. Right behind the dog was a woman, who was running to catch up to the little girl. Manzi said he later learned that the woman was the girl's mom.
The girl ran around a parked car and the dog followed. The woman, at that point, tripped and fell as the dog reached the girl. Manzi said when the dog reached the girl, he knew the situation was dire. That's when his training kicked in.
PSE&G, which trains its workers on how to deal with many job hazards, had brought in a dog trainer who instructed employees that an umbrella is an effective way to ward off a dog attack.
“I ran to the back of my truck to get a stick, and I saw the umbrella," Manzi said.
Manzi said he doesn't see his reaction as heroic, but a function of his training.
“I’m pretty boring,” he said when describing himself and his nearly 19 years of service in PSE&G Gas Operations. “I’m a grandpa of four grandchildren, and I think that had a lot to do with me helping that little girl.”
