Between training, fundraising, moves to new locations, and of course, responding to critical emergencies, Newtown’s first responders took care of community residents, many who work here, or who were just passing through, around the clock in 2021. From Newtown Police Department, to the local volunteer ambulance corps, the underwater search & rescue team (NUSAR), five volunteer fire departments, and the emergency communications center staff, hundreds of trained response professionals were there to answer thousands of calls for help.

New Dispatch Center Opens

On Tuesday, March 16, Maureen Will made the final emergency communications center transmission out of 3 Main Street, formally closing the dispatch center’s original location. The director of Newtown Emergency Communications Center (NECC), or “dispatch,” Will signed off from her department’s former location shortly before 3 pm.

NECC’s operations picked right up from 191 South Main Street, within the building that also houses Newtown Police Department. The new location tripled the department’s working space.

Fires & Other Emergencies

Two structure fires within a week challenged Newtown’s firefighters early in 2021. Among the emergency stories covered during the past year, one of the first was a fire that began in the chimney and then quickly extended fully into a home on Aspen Lane. Firefighters from all five of Newtown’s companies, and a number of mutual aid companies, responded to the January 22 fire, which displaced a family of seven.

One week later, single digit temperatures and a light snow condition did nothing to hamper the efforts as firefighters, police officers, a Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps team, and a paramedic all converged on a Hanover Road home, where fire again displaced multiple people. Hook & Ladder Fire Chief Chris Ward was the officer in command at the fire scene, which remained active for nearly three hours.

Three residents and at least four dogs were evacuated from the residence as nearly 40 firefighters worked to extinguish the fire. Construction within the residence added to the challenges of the morning’s extinguishment.

If not for the quick actions of a neighbor who grabbed a garden hose and a passerby who ran to help, a March 15 house fire on Botsford Hill Road could have destroyed the structure. The home was unoccupied at the time the fire started; but Botsford, Sandy Hook, Hook & Ladder and Hawleyville firefighters were able to arrive within minutes.

Firefighters from all five companies and Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps responded to a King Street home early one Sunday afternoon for a garage fire that created a column of smoke seen for miles. Standby coverage was provided by Brookfield at Hook & Ladder’s station; Stepney at Botsford’s firehouse; and Southbury at Sandy Hook’s main station.

A fire on a Platts Hill Road property in late March destroyed a 1,850-square-foot barn that had been converted into a woodworking space and an apartment. The female tenant and her two dogs were able to escape without harm, fortunately. Firefighters from all five Newtown companies responded to the overnight fire, which Botsford Fire Chief Andrew White said left the building with structural damage.

In late April, a lightning strike during a brief but intense thunderstorm caused a fire that damaged a private residence in Sandy Hook. All five fire companies responded to 26 Bradley Lane after being notified of a fire in the basement of that home. A teenager who was home at the time was able to safely leave the residence. The fire was centered in the garage of a 1½-story Cape style house, but there was heavy smoke damage to much of the home as well. Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps personnel and two fire marshals also responded.

Hook & Ladder and Hawleyville firefighters responded to a home on Dinglebrook Lane on July 15, after a caller told emergency dispatchers he was smelling gas in the garage. It took well more than three hours to safely clear two tanks in the garage of propane — including an aging 100-pound tank — and then have the tanks removed from the property. One firefighter was checked for heat-related exhaustion. There were no other injuries reported.

A quick response by Hook & Ladder firefighters, with members of the town’s other four companies close behind, contained and quickly extinguished a barn fire that temporarily threatened a coop and residence on Blackman Road September 24. No injuries or further damage resulted from the fire that destroyed the two-story barn.

A fire at a Dayton Street home on the evening of October 31 displaced the sisters who had been living in the two-story Colonial. All five of Newtown’s companies responded to the scene. Crews from Southbury, Bethel and Stevenson sent standby to Sandy Hook’s main, Dodgingtown, and Botsford stations, respectively.

Earlier this month, all five fire companies responded to a brush fire in the Poverty Hollow Road area that had been sparked by a fire pit. The accidental fire burned 2½ acres and took roughly two hours to put out.

Serious Crashes

A Sandy Hook resident died in late February a day after his vehicle crashed on Toddy Hill Road. Brandon Hensel was in critical condition when he was taken to Danbury Hospital early Sunday, February 28, after his vehicle crashed near Quarry Ridge Road. He was taken off life support the following evening.

A male driver was seriously injured and a female passenger received minor injuries after the vehicle they were in crashed into a home in the center of town in May, after the driver left what started as a traffic stop. Newtown police had stopped a 2000 Honda Accord EX being operated by Jose Cruz, 28, of Bridgeport, for reportedly driving in an erratic manner.

Cruz reportedly started driving at a high rate of speed on West, however. Approximately a half-mile later, the sedan went over a curb after missing a hard right turn and crashed into the northern corner of the residence at 47 West Street. Response to the scene included Newtown Police, Hook & Ladder, and Dodgingtown firefighters, Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and a Town building inspector. No one inside the residence was hurt; the driver and female passenger were both transported to a hospital.

Sandy Hook, Hook & Ladder, and Southbury fire companies, Newtown and Southbury ambulance crews, a paramedic, a heavy-duty wrecker, and state troopers all responded to I-84 West on August 5 after a full-size pickup truck went approximately 25 feet down an embankment. Members of all three fire companies descended the steep embankment to rescue the driver. The 42-year-old male driver was extricated from the vehicle, which was wedged against a tree, and was taken to the hospital for suspected minor injuries.

A fatal crash took the life of a 22-year-old man on September 28, after the vehicle he was operating crashed into a tree in southern Newtown. Botsford Fire Rescue, Hook & Ladder Fire, Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, a paramedic, and Newtown Police officers all responded to the area of 190 Huntingtown Road around 4:20 that afternoon. Bert Schovanec, who had addresses in Newtown and Waterford, died at the scene.

Water Rescues & Recovery Efforts

Two Newtown siblings who had been canoeing on Lake Lillinonah on a Saturday afternoon in March were rescued after their canoe reportedly flipped. Hook & Ladder and Newtown Underwater Search And Rescue (NUSAR) each sent boats with crews into the water, and found the men, who had been in the water and then on the shoreline for a few hours.

The two suffered from hypothermia, exhaustion, and exposure, and were transported to a hospital for evaluation. Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps and Newtown police also responded to that call for help.

NUSAR divers also responded to two service calls in April. The first was to assist in a search for a man who went missing while hiking in Lover’s Leap State Park in New Milford on Easter Sunday. The rescue effort turned into a recovery mission. The man’s body was found in Lake Lillinonah three days later.

The following weekend NUSAR responded to Middlebury after a kayaker went missing in a pond there. The Newtown team joined responders from DEEP (Department of Energy and Environmental Protection), Middlebury fire and police, and the Region 5 Dive Team to search for a 26-year-old man from Prospect. NUSAR assisted on the first day of the search; the man’s body was found on the second day.

In early December, multiple agencies worked together to rescue a hiker from the Lower Paugussett State Forest. Sandy Hook Fire & Rescue, Hook & Ladder, Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, NUSAR and DEEP all responded on a Sunday afternoon when a 61-year-old male fell and reportedly broke a leg.

Rochambeau Bridge Incidents

The Rochambeau Bridge Reconstruction Project was the site of three major incidents this year, including one fatality. The bridge has been particularly challenging for traffic this year, due to the continued rehabilitation of the two spans that carry I-84 traffic over Lake Zoar and the Newtown-Southbury town line.

In March, the crash of a tractor-trailer that had been traveling east within the construction zone was first dispatched as a rollover with fuel spill. The driver was safely out of the vehicle when diesel fuel leaking from the truck combusted, however, destroying the truck.

Sandy Hook, Hook & Ladder and Southbury firefighters all responded to the scene, which closed both directions of travel. DEEP also responded due to fluids leaking from the truck and materials used to put out the fire, leaking into the lake below.

Between crash reconstruction and extensive cleanup efforts, the interstate was closed at that location for hours in both locations.

In August, an early morning crash forced thousands of vehicles off the highway and clogged dozens of local avenues across Newtown and neighboring towns for hours. The crash occurred around 3:36 am August 19 within the bridge’s construction zone, after the driver of a 2016 Freightliner traveling west lost control of the truck in raining/wet conditions. The truck damaged approximately 500 feet of plastic dividers set into concrete barriers, and then crashed into a DOT concrete barrier within the bridge’s construction zone, with the cab of the truck on top of the barrier and its fuel tank ruptured.

Southbury and Sandy Hook firefighters, CT State Police, and CT DEEP all responded to that scene.

In the autumn, a woman trying to flag down help after her vehicle became disabled was killed after being struck by her own vehicle on the Rochambeau Bridge. CT State Police reported Samantha Figueroa, 22, was seeking help after her 2009 Mercury Grand Marquis LS became disabled during the early hours of October 24. A 2016 Mack Truck collided with the Mercury, which then struck Figueroa, who was pronounced dead a short time later at St Mary’s Hospital.

Newtown PD News

The town’s police department celebrated its first anniversary in its new station in November, the same month the department formally celebrated its 50th anniversary. The department officially began in September 1971, but the anniversary year was commemorated for much of 2021.

Separately, two of the department’s officers — Sergeant Scott Ruszcyk and Lieutenant Richard Robinson — received the Police Commissioners Association of Connecticut Meritorious Service Award. The two Newtown officers, and retired New York Port Authority Lieutenant William Keegan, were nominated by Newtown Police Chief James Viadero after founding a program called Stress Management and Resiliency Training: Enhanced Tactical Performance. The program helps mitigate the effects of stress and other factors that impact the mental health and well-being of law enforcement personnel.

In May, the community room of the new police station was formally named The Officer Stephen A. Ketchum Community Room, memorializing its namesake. Officer Ketchum retired in May 2014 after serving Newtown for 25 years. One of two Newtown police officers to respond to the World Trade Center on 9/11, he was diagnosed in 2013 with lung cancer brought on by the toxins present at Ground Zero. He died in March 2016.

In mid-October, working with Newtown Action Alliance and other public safety groups across the state, the department participated in #KeepKidsSafe, an inaugural statewide gun buyback program. Locally, the initiative resulted in more than 100 firearms turned in to Newtown police for destruction.

In November, a press conference at Newtown Police Department unveiled Operation Wingspan, a multi-agency effort to fight a rash of car thefts plaguing communities across the state. Representatives from Newtown, Bridgeport, Fairfield, Monroe, Stratford, Trumbull, and Westport outlined the effort to identify stolen vehicles from suburban communities that are often taken to Bridgeport, to commit crimes.

During the December 7 police commission meeting, Chief James Viadero announced he was resigning, after having accepted a post as chief inspector in the Connecticut Office of the Inspector General. The chief plans to depart by the end of January.

Additionally, the department also saw a few members step into retirement during the year. Patrol Officer Robert Hass, Officer Gladys Pisano, and Detective Jason Frank

Meanwhile, new officers to join the ranks during the past 12 months included Barry Hyvarinen, Amanda Lopez, Frank Piazza, Hugo Rojas, and Peter Wlasuk.

Also, Officer Bart Lorancaitis was promoted to the rank of Sergeant.

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Associate Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.