Turf war in Connecticut: Listen to audio as chief officer cancel's automatic aid companies on working fire in North Stamford.
Click above to listen to the dispatch audio from Monday’s fire.
The chief of the Long Ridge Fire Company in Stamford, Connecticut did not answer a newspaper reporter’s call to find out why an assistant chief canceled automatic aide companies shortly after the initial dispatch to a house fire Monday night. Those companies were soon dispatched again after the first firefighters discovered a significant fire in a 7800 square foot home.
Brendan Keatley, president of IAFF Local 786 wants Stamford’s mayor to hold a public hearing about the fire. He told the Stamford Advocate, “They turned us back for what reason? It’s a disgrace. An absolute disgrace.”
Here are excerpts from the Stamford Advocate article by Jeff Morganteen:
The city’s professional fire union is calling for a public hearing to investigate the Long Ridge Fire Co.’s response to a chimney fire that ended up spreading to the attic of a North Stamford mansion Monday night, destroying its roof and much of its second floor.
Dispatch records show an assistant chief from Long Ridge canceled two fire engines from the city while they were en route to the fire at 68 Deep Valley Trail, which was reported around 8:50 p.m. Monday and left three firefighters with minor injuries. The assistant chief was not at the scene when he canceled the response from the city engines, saying they had sufficient personnel, according to dispatch recordings of the incident.
When asked whether the chief, whose named could not be determined, was on the scene, he replied, according to the dispatch records, “Negative. We have enough guys. Cancel everybody but Long Ridge.”
Minutes later, when the first arriving unit reported seeing flames through the mansion’s roof, the dispatcher asked whether they wanted to request the city engines again. This time, the chief asked to send them back out.
