John Nickerson, Staff Writer
Published: 10:13 p.m., Thursday, December 30, 2010
STAMFORD -- A scuffle between a volunteer fire chief and a Stamford Fire & Rescue deputy chief at the scene of a fire call nine days ago is under police investigation.
Police Chief Robert Nivakoff and Stamford Fire Chief Robert McGrath declined comment on the incident, which occurred in the driveway at 49 Parry Court on Dec. 21.
The incident comes amid tensions between the professional and volunteer fire staffs as a plans for new fire department in the north of the city, consisting of new professional firefighters and the city's existing volunteer companies all merged into one district, are being considered for implementation.
While police would not release reports or tapes of radio dispatch calls because the case is still under investigation, interviews with firefighters indicate the fire service call on Parry Court began routinely.
Firefighters were called out at 10:25 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 21, because smoke was coming from the basement of the Parry Court home. The cause of the smoke was quickly found to be a malfunctioning furnace and the home was determined safe by Springdale Fire Company Chief Shawn Fahan.
Fahan called police to report he was pushed by Stamford Fire & Rescue Deputy Chief William Smith at the scene. Fahan also declined comment.
Fahan said Turn of River Fire Department Chief Frank Jacobellis, who was at the call, will back up his allegations against Smith.
Jacobellis said he did not see any physical altercation at the scene.
Smith, a 30-year veteran of the department, denies the accusation.
"The allegation that there was a physical assault is unfounded, as evidenced by people who were on the scene who gave statement to police," he said.
The police incident report conclude there did not appear to be probable cause for arrest, Smith said.
"If it occurred, which it did not, I'm sure the police would have acted appropriately," he said.
No charges have been filed and an officer with knowledge of the investigation said he did not believe any arrest will be made when the investigation is complete.
After the house was determined to be safe and other firefighters were told to return to service by Fahan, Smith arrived up at the scene.
Smith, who was at that moment the ranking member of Stamford Fire & Rescue, came to Parry Court to determine that operations being conducted by 21 city firefighters, who showed up in three fire engines, a fire truck and rescue unit, were proceeding safely, said Brendan Keatley, president of the Stamford Professional Fire Fighters Association.
But Fahan told Smith that he was not needed at the scene and asked him to leave. Smith was told that Fahan, who was commanding the scene, appointed Jacobellis safety officer for the call, Jacobellis said during an interview Wednesday.
Keatley, who was not at the scene, said Smith then questioned Jacobellis' qualifications to be safety officer at the call and an argument over Jacobellis' appointment as safety officer ensued between Fahan and Smith.
Jacobellis said he is a certified fire officer level 2 which is a state certification requiring more training than needed to be a fire safety officer at that scene.
Keatley also said that Smith noticed Fahan acting erratically and was unsure of his state of mind.
Told of Keatley's remark, Fahan said Keatley is always trying incite fear in the public over the proposal to merge the volunteer departments and most of what he says is misinformation.
As the argument continued, Fahan called dispatch to ask for a police officer to respond because Smith was being "insubordinate" and was impeding and interfering with operations at the house.
Fahan then said Smith pushed him and he again called police asking that an officer respond quicky because he had just been assaulted.
Keatley said Smith never pushed Fahan.
Keatley says that Smith had every right to question Jacobellis' and Fahan's qualifications because the volunteer companies have never provided their credentials to Stamford Fire & Rescue so they can determine who is capable of doing jobs they are assigned.
Keatley also said that Fahan was the only Springfield volunteer to show up at the call and he questions why just one volunteer would have been on scene.
More volunteers may, however, have been on the way but were called off once the home was determined to be safe.
"You had no one to command because you had no volunteers. You are trying to assert your control over the union employees, but what is your level of training sir?" Smith asked.
Jacobellis said the incident really began when Smith sent a "sarcastic and antagonistic" message over the air that night after the fire call came in.
While he said he could not discuss the entire incident because he was tending to operations inside the house, Jacobellis said Fahan acted in a respectful manner toward Smith.
He said Smith should have recognized Fahan's authority, just as he does at fire calls originating inside the Stamford Fire & Rescue district.
"Chief Fahan respectfully requested Smith to leave the scene. He said "please" over and over. He just kept respectfully requesting Smith to leave him alone. I think he handled it real well as far as not getting involved in a shouting match. Fahan tried very hard to alleviate the situation. Smith was not following the chain of command at all," Jacobellis said.
For his part, Jacobellis said he did not think the proposed merger of the volunteer companies had anything at all to do with the altercation.
"I think there may be some sort of history between those two dating back," he said.
Board of Representative Public Health and Safety committee co-chair Scott Mirkin R-13 said he does not intend to bring the incident before the committee.
"It seemed to be much ado about nothing," Mirkin said. "I think what's happening is when there is an opportunity, people are looking for things to criticize. I don't want to spend spend a lot of time looking at the past. I want to look at the future and some people just don't want to do that."
Staff Writer John Nickerson can be reached at 203 964-2320 or john.nickerson@scni.com Magdalene Perez also contributed to this story.
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