BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- Every working fire scene is now a site for mock mayday training. Additional incident safety officers are available for night, weekend and holiday fires.
Better record keeping and more attention is being paid to ensure the city's 270 firefighters undergo their annual medical evaluations.
But annual physical ability evaluations and introducing a wellness program?
"That's something that has to be negotiated" with the union, said Fire Chief Brian Rooney. "It's a change in working conditions."
Nearly 15 months after a July 24, 2010, fire claimed the lives of Lt. Steven Velasquez and Firefighter Michel Baik, department and city officials say they have implemented 13 safety initiatives while the Emergency Operations Center has added four new safety procedures. All of these come from recommendations made by state and federal agencies investigating the fire and which were highly critical of the department and communications center for procedural and training failures.
The city paid a $3,000 penalty to the state Department of Labor Office of Safety and Health for four violations. No one was charged, punished or disciplined by the department or any agency in the two firefighters' deaths.
Following the release of those reports, Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch said he had complete confidence in Rooney's management and leadership of the department.
The chief's contract expired in May and is still being negotiated.
On Friday, Rooney, City Attorney Mark Anastasi and John Bohannon, the fire department's lawyer, discussed with the Connecticut Post the city's response to the safety initiatives recommend by the state Labor Department, the state Fire Marshal's Office and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Although Finch did not attend the session, he previously discussed the incident and recommendations briefly with the Post's editorial board.
When asked at the editorial board meeting if Rooney would be retained, the mayor said: "I'm pleased with his performance and overall, he feels worse than anybody and began immediately soul-searching and changing policies right after the fire."
THE MAYDAY CALL
Rooney said the deaths of Baik and Velasquez are in the minds of every supervisor and firefighter at every training session.
Take Velasquez's muffled mayday call that only Lt. Carlos Reyes thought he heard.
Rooney described that transmission from Velasquez as being "garbled" and "stepped on" by other ongoing radio communications at the scene.
"After listening to it in comfortable quarters with no other communications going on, no fire engines running, no pumps running ... if you listen to it several times you start to make it out."
Both he and Anastasi pointed out that there is "no option" at the scene to replay a communication, much as you would with a garbled message on your home answering machine.
Rooney commended Deputy Chief Robert Petrucelli for properly going to the back of the building and observing a rescue team making its way to the third floor. The team eventually recovered the two firefighters.
Since the fatalities, Rooney said there have been changes in the way maydays are handled. Now every firefighter has been instructed to report any suspected mayday call to the incident commander, the chief said. Once that happens, the incident commander makes an on-air roll call.
Now, every working fire ends with a mock mayday training session.
"The incident commander designates a firefighter to go into the building, push his man-down button (which designates the company he is with and his assignment) and call for a mayday. The Rapid Intervention Team will then put on their self-contained breathing apparatus, go into the building, locate the firefighter and walk him out."
Meanwhile, the communication division is listening and responding to everything being radioed.
Additionally, Rooney said companies are chosen at random on their first day or night on duty to undergo a mayday training session at their firehouse or the Emergency Operations Center.
Rooney said his department uses every major structural fire as a learning tool during a "post-incident analysis" conference. He explained that the confidential session involves a discussion of what techniques and strategies were used, what worked, what didn't work and what could have been done better.
The department also instituted a pilot program in which an incident safety officer is on duty at all times and responds to every working fire. In the past, this officer would be on duty only during the day shift and be home on call for night, weekend or holiday working fires, serious car accidents and treacherous rescues.
Rooney said the on-duty safety officer, rotated among the five training division supervisors, is buttressed by an on-call safety officer rotated among the 60 lieutenants and captains.
They are called from home to respond to any major weekend, evening or holiday fire.
AIR CYLINDER TESTING
Investigative agencies also chastised the city for not keeping up with required testing of the air cylinders.
Since the July 24, 2010 fatal fire, Rooney said the city numbered each of its 650 air cylinders as well as the date testing needs to be done, usually in two- or five-year periods, and placed this into a software program they developed. Now, when a group of cylinders, usually 25 or 50, come within a month of their testing day, the program makes an alert.
The agencies also recommend the institution of a comprehensive wellness and fitness program, up-to-date annual medical evaluations and physical-ability testing.
"Medical evaluations are done on an annual basis," Rooney said.
"We do what's required by the National Fire Protection Agency on medical requirements for the self-contained breathing apparatus."
This includes a chest X-ray as well as hearing, blood pressure and breathing tests, he said. The breathing test requires the firefighter to reach a certain level of lung capacity before being qualified to use the self-contained breathing apparatus.
As for required wellness and fitness programs, Rooney said those represent changes in the working conditions and have to be negotiated.
Long before the fire, he obtained a federal grant that allowed him to purchase fitness equipment for every firehouse and conducted a nutritional education program.
The firefighter contract has about 18 months remaining.
"I can't just automatically arbitrarily demand that it's done," he said. "Can I offer it on a voluntary basis? Yes. Did I? Yes. Did people take advantage of it? Some did. Are some still taking advantage of it? Yes. Enough? Well that's questionable. Will it be negotiated. Absolutely."
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
