January 30, 2004

Martin B. Cassidy

Staff Writer

The executive board of the town's firefighters union has demanded that Greenwich Fire Chief Daniel Warzoha be removed from his post, alleging the chief had been drinking at a social club prior to directing firefighting operations at the Davis Avenue blaze last month, where three firefighters were seriously injured.

"We don't believe he should be the fire chief anymore," Greenwich Firefighters Association Local 1042 Secretary Jerry Romaniello said of Warzoha. "We feel that that's not acceptable for the health and safety of the citizens of Greenwich."

Warzoha was also impaired at two fires the department responded to in 2002, Greenwich Fire-fighters Local 1042 Vice President Bob Kick said yesterday, repeating the allegations the union made in a news release Wednesday.

Warzoha, a firefighter in town for 35 years, 13 of them as volunteer district chief of the Glenville Volunteer Fire Department, declined to comment on the allegations Wednesday when reached by telephone. Additional calls for comment yesterday were not returned. Warzoha was sworn in as Greenwich fire chief in March of 1999.

Five firefighters were injured during the Dec. 5 fire at 312 Davis Ave., three of them seriously when they were forced to jump from a third-story window while searching the second and third floors of the house for two small children thought to be left inside. While searching, the three were trapped when the fire flashed over, leaving the window as the only exit, according to fire officials.

First Selectman Jim Lash refused to comment on the union's charges Wednesday, but yesterday said the union had informed him of their claims in early January, and that the town then hired an attorney, Louis Lustenberger of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., to investigate the union's allegations.

"The town is following the standard procedures for when an allegation like this takes place, and in this case that includes hiring Mr. Lustenberger," Lash said.

Lash said that while Warzoha is still chief of the department, he has not been allowed to take command of fire scenes since Lash was informed of the allegations on Jan. 6.

Lash declined to comment on whether Lustenberger had confirmed the union's allegations, because the information was part of a personnel matter and thus was confidential.

"As first selectman, I have many obligations to the community and the town's employees," Lash said. "The town has standard procedures we follow just as they would be followed if a member of the union was subject to these types of accusations."

Warzoha was impaired at three separate incidents in the past two years, union officials said in their news release and in interviews with Greenwich Time. They said none of the union officials witnessed the alleged events.

Union officials said:

* Warzoha was impaired during the Davis Avenue fire, having been drinking at the Polish Club of Glenville just prior to assuming command, according to the union's Kick and Romaniello. According to the release, Warzoha had been at the club for 57 minutes before responding to the fire. The union was tipped off by another patron of the club that night who wished to remain anonymous, Kick said.

* Warzoha admitted to Kick and union President John Novak on Dec. 27 that he had been drinking before the Davis Avenue fire -- information the union officials then passed on to Lash, who is also the town's fire commissioner, on Jan. 6, Kick said. Lash asked the union to allow him two weeks to have Lustenberger look into their allegations before the union took any further action.

* Warzoha was impaired during incident calls at a house fire on Harbor Drive in Belle Haven on Sept. 22, 2002, Kick said, and at a truck fire on Interstate 95 on Nov. 5, 2002. At the latter incident, Deputy Chief Joseph Benoit asked Warzoha to leave the scene, according to Kick.

"Deputy Chief Benoit was on the I-95 incident and knew he (Warzoha) was intoxicated," Kick asserted in a telephone interview.

Benoit was unavailable for comment.

* Warzoha arranged a meeting with Kick, Novak and former union executive board member William Ingraham on Nov. 7, 2002, and apologized for the Sept. 22 and Nov. 5 incidents, according to Kick. At the meeting in the local's office at the Greenwich Fire Department Central Headquarters, Kick said, Warzoha told the union officials, "I screwed up big time and never should have been there," and promised them, "This will never happen again."

Warzoha's actions violated Greenwich's firefighting regulations, Kick said. Under Section 206-6 of the Greenwich Firefighters Manual, "no paid member, on duty, or volunteer, designated for standby duty in the station by the district chief or chief of department, shall consume any alcoholic beverages or drugs or report for, or remain, on duty while impaired."

"He should never have reported to the scene," Kick said.

Other members of the department's command staff said the union's allegations were a surprise.

"Honestly, I don't know where it's going," Sound Beach Volunteer Chief Paul Chiapetta said.

Acting Deputy Fire Chief and Fire Inspector George Hannigan said the union's allegations were serious, and wondered how much corroboration was available for them.

"That's a pretty strong claim," Hannigan said of the allegations.

Kick said the union repeatedly asked Warzoha to step down, and decided to publicly air the charges after he refused to do so.

"We've tried hard to settle this behind closed doors instead of in the paper," Kick said. "He's done some serious damage and three of our members were seriously injured, and we felt that it would be the best thing for health and safety of our membership and our public."

Deputy Chief Benoit was the duty officer on Dec. 5, the night of the Davis Avenue fire, said Deputy Chief Mike Puterbaugh, one of the firefighters injured in the blaze. Duty officers take command of firefighting operations on emergency calls, Puterbaugh said. But as chief, Warzoha has discretion to assume control of a scene, Puterbaugh and Chiapetta both said.

Puterbaugh declined to comment on the union's specific charges.

Puterbaugh said of Warzoha on the night of the fire, "I can only tell you, in my personal opinion, that evening he did not appear impaired to me.

"The union has made some very strong allegations and they need to be prepared to verify their information," Puterbaugh said. "People will certainly be looking for proof of their allegations."

According to the release, the union vowed at the Nov. 7, 2002, meeting they would push for Warzoha's removal if the issue of drinking came up again, but offered to support him if he sought help.

Lash said the Davis Avenue Fire Incident Review Panel, a town-appointed commission of three fire chiefs from other Connecticut towns, is to compile a report on the effectiveness of the firefighting procedures during the blaze by mid-February. Such reviews of major fires usually are conducted by senior department officers, but because Warzoha and the two deputy chiefs of the department were involved in the blaze, an independent body was appointed.

A member of the panel, Milford Fire Chief Louis La Vecchia, said Wednesday that the union's charges about Warzoha's drinking were new to him.

Attempts to reach the other two members of the panel, West Haven Fire Chief William S. Johnson Jr., 68, chairman of the panel, and Wallingford Fire Chief Peter Struble, were unsuccessful yesterday.

The union said it will wait for the panel's recommendations, Novak said. But Romaniello criticized Warzoha's judgment in ordering the search that resulted in the three firefighters' injuries. After Warzoha initially ordered firefighters out of the building at 10:04 p.m., he granted permission for the search after one of the firefighters, Kennard Ray Little, 33, of Hamden, asked for permission to complete his search. Warzoha assigned Puterbaugh, 52, of Stamford, and Erik Maziarz, 23, of Ridgefield, to assist Little in the search, according to fire officials.

Romaniello stopped short of specifically saying impairment led to the decision.

"That was one of the bigger mistakes," Romaniello said. Warzoha "should have overruled" Little, he said.

Puterbaugh said "hypothetically" that if a commanding officer on a fire scene appeared under the influence, the next ranking officer would pull the commanding officer aside.

"But it's hypothetical because it's never happened," Puterbaugh said, emphasizing no such incident had occurred to the best of his knowledge.

Thomas Brennan, the former fire chief of the Waterbury Fire Department picked by the union to provide a review of the fire, said the union told him about Warzoha's alleged drinking a week before he visited Greenwich to view the fire scene.

Brennan said the drinking allegation diverted attention from the factors that led to the injuries, including manpower issues and officers handling firefighting tactics, such as operating hoselines and conducting rescue searches.

As a former chief, Brennan said too much focus on individual decisions was counterproductive to addressing more organizational issues in the department which hindered the firefighting effort. Much of the problem comes down to the long-running union complaint of fire companies being staffed by too few firefighters to effectively do their job, Brennan said.

"You can have three $250,000 engines that look nice, but if you have only two people on them, they're useless," Brennan said.

Puterbaugh, Little and Maziarz remain on injury leave. Puterbaugh is recovering from two broken legs, and Little from a fractured pelvis, three broken ribs, a broken wrist and cracked vertebrae. Maziarz said he sustained second-degree burns to his ears, face, neck and right arm; first-degree burns to his hands; contusions and torn cartilage in his left knee; contusions on his sternum and thoracic spine; and a neck sprain.