Proposal aims to prevent contractual bans on volunteer fire-fighting

By:Jason Vallee , Special to the Post
01/18/2007

State Rep. Sandy Nafis, D-27th Assembly District, and other legislators stood in support of local volunteer fire departments Thursday, Jan. 11, when they proposed a bill that would prevent employees with paid fire departments from volunteering outside the department.
The bill comes alongside a Tuesday evening, Jan. 9, Newington Town Council meeting where the administration from the Newington volunteer fire department and members of the Town Council asked Nafis, Rep. Tony Guerrera, D-29th Assembly District, Tim O'Brien, D-24th Assembly District, and State Sen. Paul Doyle, D-9th District to seek legal action to prevent such a ban.
"We have already lost nearly half a dozen firefighters to East Hartford and another half dozen to New Britain," said Newington Fire Chief Chris Schroeder on Thursday. "If nothing is done, could lose up to six more to Hartford in 2008."
Stipulations in union contracts already prevent paid firefighters in New Britain and East Hartford from volunteering in their hometown and if Hartford gets its way, their staff won't be volunteering anywhere else either.
If left unchanged, the 2008 contracts would immediately eliminate two staff members, including Deputy Chief Vic Depamphilis, as well as up to four others who have already submitted applications. Wethersfield would also have trouble, losing at least six volunteers already contracted with the Hartford Police Department.
While the stipulations are designed to protect professional firefighters and prevent injuries or increased costs to paid departments, it has put a heavy burden on smaller municipalities including Newington, Wethersfield, Cromwell and others statewide.
Schroeder said such contractual agreements are taking these departments' most knowledgeable staff away and leaving municipalities that rely on volunteer departments with a severe shortage of daytime responders.
"It makes it very difficult because volunteers available (in the) daytime are hard to come by," Schroeder said. "If given two guys we are in fantastic shape, but to lose two is devastating."
During daytime shifts, the town currently uses mainly Highway Department and other municipal employees as volunteers. To assist in the numbers, they are also part of a mid-state collaborative task force with Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, Berlin and Cromwell.
While the task force provides necessary backup, relying on response assistance from surrounding towns would be detrimental to response times and could make simple fires more dangerous, Schroeder said.
This is not the first time a bill has been proposed to prevent such contractual stipulations, but legislators have been unsuccessful in passing anything to this point.
"In two hours, we received 25 cosponsors," said Nafis. "We have been working since the contract agreement was passed and have re-worked much of the language to avoid any pitfalls we have had in the past."