By Martin B. Cassidy
Staff Writer
January 4, 2006
Kennard Ray Little repeated his number over the fire department radio system yesterday, saying it as if his fellow firefighters might have forgotten.
"I repeat, Number 40, Humpty Dumpty is back," Little said from the Cos Cob fire station.
"Welcome back, brother," Dispatcher Chris Froelich responded from across town at the central firehouse.
"Welcome back Big Poppa!!!" another firefighter bellowed over the system.
Little, a 35-year-old Hamden resident, returned to full duty yesterday at the Greenwich Fire Department, a little more than two years after he sustained serious injuries when he and two other firefighters jumped from the third-story window of a burning Davis Avenue home to escape flames during a search for children who were later found at a home in Stamford.
"We've been longing to get this guy back," said Bob Roth, another firefighter at the Cos Cob house.
Little fractured his pelvis, three ribs and his wrist in the fall. Much of the past two years, he said, has been a grind of physical therapy with no certainty he would regain his former strength.
"Mentally and physically I'm stronger," Little said. "But physically and psychologically I'm not the same person as before."
For 60 days after the accident Little couldn't feel his legs, he said, and it was only last spring that physical therapy corrected a pronounced limp.
Most days Little set the alarm clock for 4:27 a.m., waking up and driving to the hospital to work with a therapist, part of a six-hour-a-day regimen, he said.
Little said he redoubled his efforts to recover after his son Tyler began misbehaving at school this year, and told his father the problem was he "missed his old daddy."
"At a certain point in my physical therapy I plateaued and couldn't get any better," he said. "I think my internal drive kicked in at that point and my rehab started to pick up."
In the morning, Little entered the central fire house on Havemeyer Place, where a steady parade of firefighters welcomed him back.
Jim McDonald, a fire inspector, embraced Little.
"It's good to see a new face and around here and know their name," McDonald said, setting off a round of laughter.
The two other firefighters injured in that fall, Assistant Chief Mike Puterbaugh and Erik Maziarz also came to offer their support. Both returned to duty within six months of the fire.
"It's great to see you," Maziarz said.
Little draped his left arm over Puterbaugh's shoulder, and told his fellow firefighters the assistant chief had phoned him once a week during his recovery to talk.
Last week, when Little called to say he was returning, Puterbaugh cried, Little said.
Puterbaugh offered to try to expedite the arrival of equipment and uniform pants for Little.
"I can't believe you actually got bigger," Puterbaugh said to Little, commenting on Little's muscular build.
Greenwich Fire Chief Sandy Anderson also stopped by, and presented Little with a fire department pin the chief had given as holiday gifts to all his firefighters.
"Don't rush it man," Anderson advised Little. "I'm with you."
Little is suing the town and former Fire Chief Daniel Warzoha, alleging the chief was impaired by alcohol while directing personnel at the fire and when he ordered Little to conduct a search of the upper floors of the building.The town determined that Warzoha, now retired, was not impaired at the fire.
Little is also suing the snow plow company that backed into an outdoor gas line, which precipitated the fire, and Northeast Utilities, on the grounds the gas line was installed in a dangerous location, according to his New Haven-based attorney, Daniel Rosen.
Little said he would be working a straight day shift for several weeks, and while he will be allowed to respond to fires, needs to pass a performance field evaluation given by the state to permanently return to that kind of duty.
Christopher Kear, who is assigned as Little's partner at the Cos Cob fire house, said it was good to have his old buddy back.
"It's great to have him back and it completes the circle," Kear said. "It's gone very fast in my eyes but I've missed him."
Copyright © 2006, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.