Published 06:25 p.m., Friday, August 26, 2011
The third report, issued last week, on the circumstances that contributed to the deaths last year of two Bridgeport firefighters was yet another indictment of the operation of the Bridgeport Fire Department.
Some hard questions face Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch and Fire Chief Brian Rooney and the upper echelon of the department's administration.
But in the most recent report, this one from the State Police Office of the State Fire Marshal, are some particularly damning findings related to procedures in the Public Safety Communications Center, a facility that has been long criticized -- both before and after the fatal fire of July 24, 2010 -- by rank-and-file firefighters as a safety liability.
It's become abundantly clear through the three reports -- one by the Connecticut office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, one from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) -- that a variety of factors converged in the third floor of a three-story house on Bridgeport's West Side on the day that Lt. Steven Velasquez and firefighter Michel Baik died.
But the State Police report notes some grave shortcomings at the communication center, including botching the handling of more than one "mayday" call from Velasquez. Also, state certification for two of the three dispatchers on duty that day had expired.
Firefighters have been critical of the center ever since it was turned over to civilian operation from uniformed staff two years ago.
A disturbing assertion in the report was that Doree Price, the director of the communications center, refused to allow the dispatchers or their supervisors to talk to investigators.
That totally unacceptable action by a city employee in a case of this significance is a matter for the mayor to deal with swiftly and firmly.
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