By Martin B. Cassidy
Staff Writer
February 10, 2004
GREENWICH -- The state has cited the Greenwich Fire Department for violating regulations to track the whereabouts of firefighters during the December Davis Avenue blaze in which three firefighters were seriously injured, a Department of Labor spokeswoman said.
The department's Division of Occupational Safety & Health cited the department Jan. 22, levying a $560 fine and requiring the town to develop and implement "fire ground accountability" procedures to ensure firefighter safety.
Three firefighters searching the building at 312 Davis Ave. on Dec. 5 were injured when they were forced to jump from a third-story window to escape the flames. The agency investigates all cases of work-related firefighter injury.
The citation requires the department to provide periodic refresher courses on the department's accountability procedures.
"They need to have an effective accountability system in regards to firefighters going into and coming out of fires," said Nancy Steffens, a spokeswoman for Connecticut OSHA, based in Wethersfield. "My understanding is there is a system in place, but it is deficient."
The department has an "accountability officer" on each fire scene who is responsible for keeping a running log on which firefighters have responded and what duties they have been assigned, said Capt. John Sabito, head of the department's training division. Arriving firefighters hand over "entry tags," which include information about their training and health. A firefighter's assignment -- such as entering a building -- is noted on the tag until completed.
If an accountability officer can't confirm the location of a firefighter conducting a search in a burning building, Sabito said, he initiates rescue operations.
"If a firefighter went in at 10 p.m. and they're not back at 10:30 p.m., you might be concerned," Sabito said.
Sabito said the officer in charge of tracking firefighters at Davis Avenue did not have complete and updated information.
In response, the Greenwich Fire Department is finalizing an updated policy, said Sabito, head of the department's training division, making the process for tracking firefighters more definitive.
The new policy, which Sabito co-wrote with Richard Gough, a Trumbull-based fire and emergency operations service consultant, provides more explicit guidelines for firefighters reporting to scenes, underlining the responsibility of reporting to the accountability officer before taking part in a firefighting effort.
So far, about 75 percent of the paid and volunteer firefighters have been trained in the new policy, Sabito said.
Connecticut OSHA officials and the Greenwich Fire Department are scheduled to meet today to discuss the citation and the updated, more detailed, policy, Sabito said. The town-appointed Davis Avenue Fire Incident Review Panel, comprising three fire chiefs from other Connecticut towns, is expected to submit an analysis of firefighting operations at the Davis Avenue fire in the next few weeks. Such reviews are usually conducted by a senior within the department not involved in the incident, but the panel was formed because Fire Chief Daniel Warzoha, Deputy Chief Joseph Benoit, who is currently acting chief, and Deputy Chief Mike Puterbaugh, one of the injured firefighters, all took part in fighting the Davis Avenue fire. The chiefs on the panel could not be reached for comment on the new procedures.
First Selectman Jim Lash said the town has already paid the $560 fine to the state.
"We've already implemented the recommendations to pay the fine and move on," Lash said. "I don't think it's controversial from our point of view."
Tobias Ostapchuk, the town's volunteer firefighter recruitment coordinator, praised the new policy.
Firefighters have said the new protocol worked well during an early morning fire last week on Greenwich Avenue in which firefighters and police rescued the occupants of a burning building, Ostapchuk said.
"Anything to improve the accountability is good for the department as a whole and the general population will benefit from that," Ostapchuk said. "We were doing a decent job before, but going forward I think we'll do a great job."
Representatives of the Greenwich Fire Fighters Association, the union representing the town's paid firefighters, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Copyright © 2004, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.