House fire ignites debate

By Jeff Morganteen
Staff Writer
Advocate Article Launched: 10/17/2008 02:59:14 AM EDT

The house at 117 Mill Spring Lane in Stamford sustained $1.2 million in... (Dru Nadler/Staff photo )

STAMFORD - Earlier this month, Tom Molen hosted a dinner party for about 15 friends at his Mill Spring Lane home, a large modern house with gray wood siding on a North Stamford cul-de-sac.

Shortly before 9 p.m., he left his guests to check on a fireplace in another room. Hearing crackling in the walls, he ran out to the porch, where the entire back yard flickered orange. Embers flew from the house 60 feet in the air.

At 9 p.m., Molen called 911.

Six minutes later, one volunteer firefighter from Long Ridge Fire Company, which has a station a mile away, arrived in his car.

By 9:12 p.m., two Long Ridge engines had arrived, one firefighter on each piece of apparatus. A minute later, one volunteer called for backup: "Please advise, three guys here. We need manpower."

A minute after that, paid firefighters from Stamford Fire & Rescue's Engine 9 reported they were en route.

They arrived at 9:26 p.m., followed by more engines. By then, most of the home was in flames. When they were extinguished, the house was uninhabitable.

What happened between Molen's call to 911 at 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4, and the time the fire was put out 99 minutes later highlights the tenuous relationship between city firefighters and Stamford's Big Five volunteer companies.

City officials said the response at Mill Spring Lane raises concerns about Long Ridge Fire Company's ability to cover its district of 14 square miles and 8,000 residents without help from Stamford Fire & Rescue, the paid city department.

In July, Long Ridge Chief Robert Bennett ended the automatic mutual-aid agreement with the paid department, an apparent response to the city's efforts to consolidate the paid department and the volunteers.

Stamford Fire & Rescue Chief Robert McGrath said that if the Mill Spring Lane fire had occurred before July, his department would have aimed to get 15 firefighters to the scene within eight minutes, the national standard for full-alarm fires. During that fire, Stamford Fire & Rescue arrived 14 minutes after Long Ridge volunteers called for assistance.

Still, "with more firemen and equipment on the initial response, the outcome could have been different," McGrath said.

"It's kind of ridiculous what's going on," said Brendan Keatley, president of the Stamford Fire Fighters Professional Association, the city firefighters' union. "We're playing Russian roulette with people's lives. Somebody needs to take a look at this."

Under the city Charter, the volunteer firehouses are autonomous, though the city gives them money and staffs them with paid firefighters.

Last year, city officials came up with a consolidation plan they said would improve service and save money. The Springdale and Glenbrook volunteer companies went along with the plan, Belltown removed its city firefighters, and Turn of River has taken the city in court. After a seven-year legal battle with the city, Long Ridge won control of its district in 2004.

Mayor Dannel Malloy said he asked the public safety director to investigate the response to the Mill Spring Lane fire. The city needs a unified fire service, he said.

"The current system as it operates in Stamford is less than optimal," the mayor said. "Here we are years after Sept. 11, and we don't have a unified fire service. I'm troubled by it."

Firefighting is difficult in Long Ridge's district of North Stamford, where there are few hydrants, and pumper trucks must make their way quickly over narrow, winding roads.

Before July, the city and Long Ridge Fire Company had an automatic mutual-aid agreement under which the city sent firefighters to assist as soon as a fire was reported. Bennett ended the agreement July 2, according to a letter signed by Bennett and addressed to McGrath.

In the letter, Bennett asks that the agreement be changed to "mutual aid upon request" because of the high number of false alarms in his district. The new agreement would save the city on fuel costs and vehicle maintenance, Bennett wrote.

"It makes no sense," Malloy said. "Quite frankly, it ultimately exposes his company to legal claim."

Last week, however, Bennett said he ended automatic mutual aid because Stamford Fire & Rescue tried to take over the Turn of River volunteer district when it began keeping city engines in trailers on Vine Road. The city doesn't have the equipment or training to cover the district, Bennett said.

"I don't need them in my way when we're at a fire," he said.

Bennett refuted the claim by one of his men on the 911 tape that only three volunteers had arrived at the Molen home 12 minutes into the fire. The volunteer who said it has a tendency to exaggerate, Bennett said.

"It's just the way he is," Bennett said.

Nine Long Ridge firefighters had arrived by 9:12 p.m., Bennett said. He provided the names of the firefighters and said errors on reports filed by the city skewed the response time of one Long Ridge engine by nearly an hour.

The incident report filed by Stamford Fire & Rescue also incorrectly shows that a city fire engine arrived at the Molen home at 10 p.m., about 45 minutes after it told dispatch it was en route.

"I don't feel that's fair to point fingers when they can't get the dispatching straight," Bennett said.

Long Ridge has about 10 paid firefighters and 15 reliable volunteers, Bennett said.

"The city rides out with four people in their machine. We ride out with one driver because it's the funding that the city will give me," he said. "Our response time was typical for a fire that was already coming through the roof when we arrived."

Keatley asked why no Long Ridge officer responded to Mill Spring Lane. According to city fire officials, a volunteer officer from Turn of River assumed control of the scene even though it was in the Long Ridge district.

Whatever the city's investigation uncovers about the Mill Spring Lane fire, the Molen family's situation remains the same.

Damage to the $2.4 million house, where the family had lived for 10 years, is estimated at $1.2 million. The family is staying with relatives in Westchester County, N.Y.

"Now it's just an issue of getting the kids into a home and starting over," Tom Molen said.

It was a frightening night.

Five minutes after Tom Molen called 911, his wife did the same.

"My house is on fire," Lauren Molen frantically told the dispatcher. "Oh my God. My house is burning down. They aren't here. Why aren't they here?"

- Staff Writer Jeff Morganteen can be reached at jeff.morganteen@scni.com or at 964-2215.