The only Sea Isle City police officer ever killed in the line of duty was honored Wednesday during a ceremony that commemorated the 28th anniversary of his death.
Ptl. Michael P. Cullinane Sr., known as “Mickey” to his friends and fellow officers, died on Aug. 26, 1992, after he was overcome by lethal gases while rescuing a construction worker from a nearly 30-foot-deep pit.
“Mickey died in the line of duty while attempting to save another person’s life. Mickey will always be seen as a hero to the men and women of this Department. We will never forget the sacrifice that he and his family made, and his service to the Sea Isle City Police Department, and to the entire city of Sea Isle,” the Police Department wrote on its Facebook page in tribute to Cullinane.
Police officers, city officials and family members gathered Wednesday at the same spot where Cullinane died for a memorial service marking the anniversary his death.
For years, the old construction site, tucked in the marshlands along Landis Avenue at 26th Street, remained vacant. But in 2015, Sea Isle Boy Scout Ben Jargowsky, for his Eagle Scout project, transformed the site into a landscaped memorial honoring Cullinane and other fallen police officers across the country.
The memorial created by Jargowsky is not the only spot in Sea Isle that honors Cullinane. The street sign at the intersection of 26th Street and Landis Avenue bears his name. In addition, the lobby at the Sea Isle police headquarters in City Hall is named in his memory.
Cullinane had saved another worker who had fallen into the same construction pit the day before, then returned on Aug. 26 for another rescue attempt that claimed his life.
Safety officials who investigated the accident that killed Cullinane concluded that hydrogen sulfide and methane gas, produced by decaying vegetation buried under the sand, was released during construction of a sewage pumping project in 1992.
In addition to killing Cullinane, the gas injured two other police officers and sent a total of 38 people, including five workers and some Sea Isle residents, to a nearby hospital, according to a story published Aug. 27, 1992, in The New York Times.
The Police Department’s Facebook post in honor of Cullinane concluded with the words: “Michael P. Cullinane Sr. End of Watch: August 26, 1992.”
