AARON LEO aleo@ctpost.com
Article Last Updated: 12/14/2007 04:19:28 PM EST
BRIDGEPORT — The embers of the Fairfield Avenue fire that killed a father, mother and infant son last week have cooled, but questions still smolder over whether coincidence or mismanagement hampered firefighters' response to the tragedy.
One factor fueling the debate is the closure of Ocean Terrace Fire Station — about three-tenths of a mile from the fire scene at 2345 Fairfield Ave. — for repairs earlier in the month. The first firefighters dispatched to the scene were based at the Wood Avenue station, more than a mile to the east.
According to Fire Department officials, it took the first crews about seven minutes to arrive on the scene, which they say is three minutes longer than their stated goal of an average four-minute response time to a fire anywhere in the city.
Critics are not questioning firefighters' determined efforts to rescue residents from the three multi-family houses that caught fire on the frigid morning, but two retired city firefighters are faulting the department's leadership for factors they contend may have played a role in the fire deaths.
The Connecticut Post has asked to listen to the 911 tape of the calls reporting the Dec. 7 fire and communications between the dispatch center and firefighters en route to the scene. However, officials said it cannot be released yet because of their continuing investigation.
Fire Chief Brian Rooney said that firefighters' response time to the blaze would obviously have been quicker had the Ocean Terrace station been open. However, he is not sure whether that would have changed how events played out.
The fast-moving blaze caused the floor to collapse beneath Arturo Iselo, 29; his wife, Anayelo Hernandez, 31, and the couple's 1-year-old infant, Omar, who were huddled in a second-floor room. The father returned to help them escape after first helping two other sons flee the fire. They all died from smoke inhalation.
Smoke alarms apparently were broken or absent from the house, although fire investigators have not be able to say that for certain since the intense fire left little evidence in its wake.
The two critics, Ronald Mackey and Donald Day, each lead organizations of black firefighters in Bridgeport and are longtime detractors of Fire Department leadership. They charge that lack of a backup plan — other than moving the Ocean Terrace firefighters to Wood Avenue — left the West End with inadequate fire protection.
Also, repairs to the firehouse should have been made earlier, they contend, which could have avoided the complete shutdown that forced its firefighters to be moved to Wood Avenue.
In a Dec. 10 letter to Mayor Bill Finch, Mackey, the president of the Firebird Society of Bridgeport, wrote: "The repairs that were needed at Engine 7 and Ladder 11 [fire house] on Ocean Terrace have been reported to Chief Rooney for years on daily, weekly and monthly reports, and instead of fixing things immediately, the status quo has been to let them go unrepaired."
He said some on-site alternative facility should have been set up temporarily near the Ocean Terrace station to house the firefighters.
But Rooney said Thursday that wasn't feasible.
"We're doing the best with what we have," he said.
Seated at his desk in Fire Department headquarters, Rooney pointed to a pile of documents on the repairs to the firehouse for problems such as clogged toilets and drains, and various leaks.
Workers from the city's Public Facilities Department "have been up there many times," he said.
The history of leaks and clogs are the result of the firehouse gradually settling on the filled site where it was built.
"It's something you don't notice right away," he said of the structure's settling. But it has caused a broken sewer main outside the station and clogs in the roof drains.
Repairs could take until late December, he noted, adding that it initially appeared to be a four- or five-day job.
Stabilizing the station requires using a jackhammer to break up the floor and then digging up the pieces by hand, before pouring a new, more stable floor, the chief said. That should permanently fix the problem, he added.
Rooney asked why Mackey didn't offer an alternative housing solution in his letter to Finch.
The chief said erecting a temporary setup for firefighters would have been challenging, involving separate men's and women's quarters, keeping firefighters warm and providing adequate bathroom and shower facilities.
The critics further charged that the chief's 25-mph speed limit for firetrucks traveling through city streets added to response times.
The speed limit is for everyone's safety, Rooney said. A fire vehicle, which weighs tons, cannot stop quickly, he said.
But whether speed, distance or both, were factors in the fire tragedy, the overall picture is not clear because the fire's cause remains under investigation.
Rooney said the house where the fatalities has never been cited for any city housing code violations.
Finch said last week he hadn't received Mackey's letter, but stands by Rooney and his leadership of the department.