Date: Fri 28-May-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Fairfield-Hills-fire

Full Text:

Small Fire Heats Up Talks Over Fairfield Hills Fire Protection

(with photo)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

The town's five volunteer fire companies are working out an agreement with the

firm that manages the state-owned Fairfield Hills property to provide a first

response to emergencies at the sprawling former mental institution.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal said Wednesday the Board of Fire

Commissioners is working out the details of a fire protection agreement for

Fairfield Hills with Tunxis Management Company. Mr Rosenthal said he hopes an

agreement can be reached soon.

Some legal, technical and insurance issues remain to be resolved, he said.

Although the town has no fire protection agreement for Fairfield Hills now in

place, Newtown Hook and Ladder firefighters at 5:28 am May 22 responded to a

report of a fire at a substance abuse treatment center at Fairfield Hills.

Fire Marshal George Lockwood said a timer malfunctioned on a clothes dryer in

Greenwich House where Addiction Prevention Therapy runs the treatment program.

A male resident had put clothes in the dryer about midnight. They continued

drying for about five and one-half hours until they ignited, creating a fire

in the laundry room. The approximately 90 residents in the building were

evacuated. There were no injuries.

The second-story laundry room was heavily damaged in the blaze, Mr Lockwood

said. Firefighters used the building's internal firehoses to battle the blaze.

"I always felt if there were a fire (at Fairfield Hills)...they (firefighters)

would do the right thing and respond," Mr Rosenthal said.

Although firefighters went to the fire at Greenwich House, the state cannot

take for granted a local first response to fires at Fairfield Hills, Mr

Rosenthal said. A formal agreement specifying the terms of such first

responses to fires is needed, he said.

In April, Mr Rosenthal had informed the state the town would not provide

either primary or secondary fire protection for Fairfield Hills because the

state failed to fully ratify a fire protection agreement that the town had

endorsed in February. The town had signed the pact calling for town volunteer

firefighters to assume full responsibility for responding to fire calls at

Fairfield Hills, the vacant former state mental institution which closed in

1995.

Mr Rosenthal then started talks with representatives of Tunxis Management

Company to discuss a fire protection agreement.

Under such an agreement, firefighters from the Newtown Hook and Ladder

Volunteer Fire Company would be the first to respond to fire calls at the

600-acre state-owned property in the geographic center of town. Additional

local fire companies would be called to emergencies, as needed. Each fire

company would receive $500 for each fire call it responds to at Fairfield

Hills.

Since the Fairfield Hills Fire Department went out of business in May 1997,

Tunxis workers have been on call for fire protection there.

Town fire officials have said the state has been fortunate there have been no

major fires at Fairfield Hills while there has been little fire protection

stationed on the grounds.

"It could have happened a long time ago," Newtown Hook and Ladder Fire Chief

Dave Ober said of the fire which occurred May 22. "I think it was a wake up

call to Tunxis Management and the town. I think the town fire department

responded accordingly," he said.