By Martin B. Cassidy
Staff Writer
November 19, 2005
A Greenwich firefighter still recovering from serious injuries he suffered in the December 2003 Davis Avenue blaze has sued a snowplow company and its driver who hit an exterior gas line at the multifamily house, starting the fire.
Kennard Ray Little, who fractured his pelvis, three ribs and his wrist when he jumped from the fourth-story window of 312 Davis Ave. to escape flames, sued the town and then-Fire Chief Daniel Warzoha last December.
Fire officials determined after the Dec. 5, 2003, blaze that the fire was caused by a vehicle damaging an outdoor gas line that provided the building with natural gas.
Little now alleges that Ander-
son DaSilva, a driver for the Port Chester-based Plant Integration & Home Care Solutions Inc., carelessly struck the gas line with his truck when he was plowing snow at the home, according to the latest suit filed Oct. 28 in state court in New Haven.
"We feel he was negligent in hitting the structure," Little's lawyer, Daniel Rosen, of New Haven, said.
Calls to Karen Karpie, the Bridgeport attorney for both Plant Integration Associates and DaSilva, were not returned Thursday and yesterday.
Rosen said that Little plans to return to work at the Greenwich Fire Department in January, and continues to receive worker's compensation benefits from the town.
Little's suit against the town and former fire chief alleges that Warzoha was impaired by alcohol when he assumed command at the fire and when he ordered Little to conduct a search of the upper floors of the building for two children later found to have been at a friend's house. The town determined that Warzoha was not impaired at the fire.
Calls to John Wayne Fox, a private lawyer who represents the town, were not returned.
Warzoha's attorney, Emmanuel Margolis of the Stamford firm Wofsey, Rosen, Kweskin, & Kuriansky LLC, declined to comment on the claims but said he was "defending" Warzoha.
"It's a lawsuit and we won't be commenting," Margolis said. "Lots of people make claims and that's what the courts are for."
Five firefighters were injured in the Davis Avenue fire, three of them seriously. Deputy Chief Mike Puterbaugh and firefighter Erik Maziarz, who conducted the search with Little, suffered broken bones and other injuries when they jumped from the building. Both men have since returned to duty. Neither has sued the town.
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