John Burgeson, Staff Writer
Published: 11:01 p.m., Tuesday, July 27, 2010
BRIDGEPORT ---- Gov. M. Jodi Rell Tuesday morning personally consoled -- with hugs and handshakes -- 16 members of the Ocean Terrace firehouse, who are still trying to come to grips with the loss of two or their own.
On Saturday, Lt. Steven Velasquez and firefighter Michel "Mitch" Baik were on the third-floor of the wood-frame home at 41 Elmwood Ave., when something went terribly wrong. They were found unconscious after sending out a mayday call and were later pronounced dead.
The Ocean Terrace station is better known as "Seven-Eleven," because it houses Engine 7 and Ladder 11. Both Velasquez and Baik were assigned to Ladder 11. On Tuesday there was no mistaking the fact that tragedy had visited Seven-Eleven. The driveway was covered with heartfelt messages drawn in chalk by the children who live nearby. One said: "I'll see you in heaven."
Other chalk messages were drawn inside, on the floor of one of the three engine bays, by distraught family members.
"One of the most touching said, `I'll miss you, daddy,' " Rell said as she talked to reporters. "I wanted to come down to let them know that I'm thinking of them. While we're going about our everyday lives, these first responders are putting their lives on the line."
There were flower arrangements, wreaths and other memorials left in front of the engine bays, too, and the front of the building was draped in black bunting.
"It means a great deal to us, and we appreciate it very much that the governor came," said firefighter Monique Pettway of Rell's visit.
"What we do, we do every day, and we don't think about the consequences," said firefighter Walter Medina. "When something like this does happen, it hits home, but when we go out on a call, it's not even in the back of our minds. We're trained to do our jobs, and we never even think about it."
"But it still is emotional and a little overwhelming when we go out on call, and we come back to all of this," Pettway said.
"Steve was by far one of the best firefighters that this department ever witnessed," said Lt. Fran McNellis, "and Baik was being tutored by him."
He said that he grew up in the same neighborhood as Baik.
"I had been on the job for 20 years, and when I saw him, I could tell he was so thrilled to be a firefighter."
He added that both were highly trained.
"Something really out of the ordinary had to happen, because they were good. Something bad had to give way, because those guys were top-notch."
McNellis said that it's never easy fighting a blaze on the upper floors of an older, three-family house.
"With a balloon frame, the fire comes up around you."
He was referring to the type of construction common in older, inner-city, multi-story homes in the major cities of the Northeast and upper Midwest that were popular between 1833 until about 1940. In a balloon-framed home, particularly the older ones, fire can travel readily inside the walls from one floor to the next. The house, in this case, was constructed in 1909.
After the governor left, 5-year-old Nelson Tracy and his younger brother, Terrance, 3, each left one of their toy firetrucks as a memorial.
"I want to be a fireman someday," Nelson said.
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