http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/local/scn-gt-lawsuit2jun23,0,5877753.story?coll=green-news-local-headlines
by Martin B. Cassidy
Staff Writer
June 23, 2006
A natural gas company sued former Fire Chief Daniel Warzoha and the town Tuesday, seeking to protect itself from the slew of lawsuits that have been filed against the utility over the December 2003 Davis Avenue fire that seriously injured three firefighters.
Connecticut Natural Gas asked the state court in Waterbury to put more of the blame for the fire on Warzoha and the town, contending that the former chief's decisions while in command of the fire contributed to the firefighters' injuries.
The suit also claims Greenwich is liable in the case because the town was Warzoha's employer. Warzoha retired as fire chief last summer, and is now the town's emergency operations manager.
"We feel the entire situation was mismanaged by the fire department and the town," CNG's New Haven lawyer Steve Errante said yesterday.
Warzoha declined to comment when reached by phone yesterday evening. His lawyer, Emmanuel Margolis, could not be reached yesterday, but in the past he has not spoken publicly about the fire or the lawsuits.
Investigators determined that the fire was caused by a snowplow damaging the outdoor gas line to the building, leaking natural gas into the building.
An investigation of Warzoha's actions, spurred by union allegations that he had been drinking prior to arriving at the fire, found that Warzoha's decision-making during the fire was sound and that the claims that he was impaired by alcohol were unfounded.
CNG's suit doesn't mention that investigation, but cites firefighters' confusion about who had command of the fire scene, which was documented in subsequent reports.
"They lacked personnel at the scene, ladders in the right places and there was trouble with the radios," CNG's lawyer, Errante, said. "It was a madhouse."
Recordings of the emergency radio transmissions that night have several firefighters complaining that the scene was disorganized, and questioning why ladders were not placed in the fourth-story windows where the firefighters were searching.
Also, the State Department of Labor cited and fined the fire department for failing to track the whereabouts of firefighters, and an independent panel recommended wide-ranging organizational and policy changes in the department, including a clearer chain of command at fire scenes and a zero-tolerance policy toward drugs and alcohol use when responding to fire scenes.
Multiple lawsuits and countersuits have been filed over the fire, and most of them name CNG as a defendant. The other parties that have sued include a former tenant of the building, the owner of the house, the maker of the pipes and valve that connect the house to the gas main, the snowplow company and the driver of the snowplow. In their suits they either seek damages to compensate for physical or economic injuries suffered, or to make the other parties responsible for a larger share of any damages that may be awarded to various parties in the lawsuits.
The firefighters were hurt when they were forced to jump out of a fourth-story window because flames engulfed the upper floors of the building where they were searching for two children that bystanders said were still in the house.
The house at 312 Davis Ave. was so badly damaged that it has since been razed, and a new retail building is being put up in its place.
The most seriously injured firefighters, Kennard Ray Little of Hamden, had a fractured pelvis, three broken ribs and a wrist. He only just returned to work this January. He is one of the people who has sued CNG, among the other parties. His lawsuit is still pending, as are the others.
The other two seriously injured firefighters were Deputy Chief Mike Puterbaugh and firefighter Erik Maziarz, who both suffered broken bones and other injuries, but both of them have returned to duty and have not sued the town or Warzoha.
Copyright © 2006, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.