Newtown fire companies were among the many to provide mutual aid to Bethel last weekend, when a fire was reported within an industrial building in the southwestern section of that town.

Dodgingtown, Hawleyville, and Sandy Hook all had tankers requested to respond to 21 Francis J. Clarke Circle in Bethel shortly after 3 pm Sunday, May 19.

Local firefighters had already been on the scene for nearly 90 minutes by then. According to Bethel Fire Chief Scott Murphy, Bethel was dispatched to the industrial park at 1:21 pm.

Newtown joined companies across the region — including Beacon Falls; Brookfield; Danbury; Middlebury; Monroe, including Stepney and Stevenson companies; Prospect; Redding; Shelton, including Nichols and Long Hill; Southbury; Trumbull; Weston; and Wolcott, among others — that sent manpower and/or apparatus to the fire at the building that houses Intersurface Dynamics, a chemical manufacturer, and ATP, an adhesive tape company.

More than 100 firefighters reportedly responded to the scene. Three tankers were requested from Newtown to assist at the fully involved structure fire, which reportedly destroyed the ATP side of the building and heavily damaged the chemical manufacturer.

Dodgingtown, Hawleyville, and Sandy Hook fire companies were dispatched at 3:08 pm, according to the Detail Call For Service Report created at Newtown Emergency Communications Center for Sunday’s call.

According to the report, Sandy Hook’s Tanker 9 operated at the scene for approximately six hours, clearing at 9:21 pm. Dodgingtown Tanker 229 cleared at 9:27 pm, and Hawleyville Tanker 339 cleared at 9:37 pm.

In addition to sending tankers to the fire scene, Newtown’s fire companies provided coverage at local stations. Hawleyville and Newtown Hook & Ladder each sent an engine and crew to fire stations in Bethel, including Stony Hill, to provide standby coverage.

Botsford Fire Rescue was not dispatched, Chief Murphy explained, because “that’s how this whole mutual aid coordination works. 

“Botsford stayed to cover Newtown and parts of Monroe if they had to,” he said. “We jump firehouses, so we’re not stripping fire apparatus from every city around us.” 

A massive mutual aid effort was called upon, according to Chief Murphy, who served as incident commander. He and other members of Fairfield County Fire Chiefs called on all three of that organization's Mutual Aid County Coordinators. The coordinators began "setting up the task for and the strike teams coming in," according to Chief Murphy.

"With the County Coordinators, it helps to free me up to focus on the fire scene," he said. Chief Murphy received assistance, he said, from Danbury Deputy Chief Bernie Meehan, Brookfield Assistant Chief Andrew Ellis, "and we were very fortunate enough that the Chief of Bridgeport, Richard Thoade, lives in Bethel, so he came and stood with us, and shared his knowledge and expertise with us." 

Those chiefs were also assisted, he said, by division commanders on two sides of the building. The Bravo Division was headed by Tom Halliford from Stony Hill, while the Delta Division was headed by Bethel Chief Engineer Bill Cadella, according to Chief Murphy. 

An Additional Challenge

At the same time that many fire units were initially responding to the fire scene, Bethel’s 2019 Memorial Day Parade was taking place. Newtown’s responding apparatus was advised to avoid downtown Bethel while responding to the fire.

The parade route took marchers, floats, bands, and other participants right along Greenwood Avenue/Route 302 — the primary road through that area of town — from its starting point at Bethel Cinema to P.T. Barnum Square, before turning onto Wooster Street and heading toward the town’s municipal center.

Chief Murphy said the responding units were able to maneuver around that.

“The police department knew what was going on, so they did the best they could to divert everything,” he said. “We also had fire police assisting with them. There were no issues.”

Some of Bethel's apparatus was responding from a minor fire at Bethel Middle School. 

“It was a small fire handled by the sprinkler system in the school, but we had to go back across town, which was hectic with traffic being diverted and people everywhere,” he said. “That delayed us for a few seconds, but nothing extraordinary.

“People in Bethel thought the sirens were for us, going to the parade, but unfortunately that was not the case,” he said.

He said drivers heading in to Bethel from out of town, who were also challenged with circumnavigating the parade, did well.

“The drivers did fine. There were no issues. Nobody complained about anything,” he said. “We gave the town two parades,” he said. “They thought all those sirens were for them.”

Although the Newtown firefighters were all cleared from Bethel by 9:30 pm on Sunday evening, Dodgingtown Fire was dispatched at 3:48 am Monday, May 20, for another mutual aid call. An automatic alarm was sounding at a Codfish Hill Road residence, according to Chief Murphy. At the same time, Danbury firefighters were already back at the Francis J. Clarke Circle location for a rekindle.

“There was a rekindle at 3:30 am, and we knew our guys were tired, so we asked for Danbury, who had just gone through a shift change, so they had a fresh crew,” he said. “Codfish Hill is just inside Bethel, so it made sense to ask for Dodgingtown to respond to that.”

Workday Interruption

Peter Van Buskirk had decided to go in to work on Sunday. The Newtown resident is a co-owner of Sonata Scientific LLC, whose lab is two doors, or about 200 yards, according to Mr Van Buskirk, away from Intersurface Dynamics.

As he was traveling toward his office, “fire trucks flew by on Route 302,” he said earlier this week.

Unaware that the huge fire was underway at the industrial park, Mr Van Buskirk stopped in Bethel for coffee before continuing on to his office, observing a lot more fire trucks “tearing down” Greenwood Avenue.

When he resumed his drive toward Sonata Scientific, Mr Van Buskirk was “really shocked to round our corner near our place at the corner of Trowbridge,” he said of the road that intersects with Francis J. Clarke Circle. “There were about 15-20 fire trucks” converged on the industrial park near his company.

“It was crazy,” he stated.

“There were more and more checkpoints all the way from South Street on, but all the police said was ‘Fire,’ and waved me through,” Mr Van Buskirk said.

Parking away from the property, he walked in and was allowed to check on his business, confirming that all was fine there.

Mr Van Buskirk stayed in the area for about 20 minutes, he said, “but I had a good view of the troops heading into battle. It was very impressive to see the pumper trucks from all of our neighboring towns: Stevenson, Sandy Hook, Miry Brook, Trumbull, Brookfield, you name it.”