ZBA: Fire crews can be based at trailer

KEILA TORRES ktorres@ctpost.com
Article Last Updated: 03/12/2008 03:46:20 PM EDT


BRIDGEPORT — Fire officials have won permission from the Zoning Board of Appeals for extended use of a trailer to house firefighters on Ocean Terrace while repairs are completed on the firehouse. The station, constructed in the 1970s, is being repaired because its site over the years has settled 18 to 24 inches, causing the sewer and water pipes under the building to break.
The 60-foot trailer was placed next to the fire station several months ago to ensure fire protection for the city's West End and Black Rock neighborhoods.

The ZBA on Tuesday granted fire officials a variance to the city's zoning regulation that sets a 30-day limit on using a trailer for human habitation after an emergency.

Repairs to the station are expected to be completed by the end of April, said Deputy Fire Chief Robert Petrucelli.

The crew from Engine 7 was brought back to the trailer on Ocean Terrace a few weeks after two adults and an infant died in a Dec. 7 fire on Fairfield Avenue. That crew and Ladder 11 had initially been reassigned to the Wood Avenue Fire Station while the Ocean Terrace facility was repaired.

The fatal fire, which took place a few days after the firehouse closed, took place in a multi-family house a stone's throw from Ocean Terrace. The blaze also left more than 20 homeless in two other houses.

Petrucelli told the ZBA the trailer is "a measure we took to provide protection to the Black Rock area." The trailer is now occupied by about four firefighters on each shift. One firetruck is parked in the only bay not affected by the repair project. Petrucelli said firefighters based at the trailer can be dispatched to a fire within their coverage zone in less than four minutes. Michael Giannotti, a spokesman for the Fire Department, said the Ocean Terrace station had about 32 firefighters based there before it was closed.