11 Grove Place - Norwich 2nd Alarm

April 22, 2006 - At around 20:42 hrs Norwich Fire received one 911 cell call reporting a structure fire at 11 Grove Pl. Norwich's Platoon 2 was dispatched and arrived to find a working fire in a vacant 2 1/2 stry wd. Squad Ax (Captain Kuraz) took command while Squad A, Eng-2,Eng-3 and Tower 1 worked the fire in a defensive manner. Norwich Chief Car-1 ( Chief Scand)arrived an assumed command from Squad A x and Norwich Car 10 (Dep. Chief Casey) had operations. Additional assignments from the Mohegan Tribal FAST Special Ops 1, Taftville ET-21,ET-22,and Tower-25 for a water supply and East Great Plains Eng-52 and Ladder 5 for city coverage. While enroute an evacuation order was announced due to the immediate collapse of the structure from the fire. The fire was contained to the building of origin with no firefighter or civilian injuries. Crews started to go into service around 23:30hrs. The Norwich FMO is investigating the cause. The total firefighters on scene, 29 (Norwich 14 Firefighters, Taftville 12 firefighters and Mohegan Tribal 3 firefighters)

Note: I arrived on ET-21 an laid a 5in line to Eng-2. I was unable to obtain earlier photos. To see some good earlier shots click the link to NLC Fire Photos on the right side.

Norwich Eng-2, Tower-1 and Squad A use master stream on the building
Norwich Eng-2 use their deck gun on the "A/B" corner
Norwich Eng-3 Lt Greg Despathy and FF Mike Dolan work a handline on Side "C"
Taftville Dep Chief Mark Gilot, Captain Tim Jencks, and FF Andrea Rizzuto ( Not seen) work a 1 3/4 handline on side "B"

Quaker Hill House Fire

April 15,2006 - At around 17:30hrs Waterford 911 received a 911 call reporting a fire in a laundry room at 603 Mohegan Ave (a.k.a Rt-32). Initial response was Quaker Hill,Cohanzie, and W-94. A fire officer at the scene reported a working fire and the Montville Fire Dept and Mohegan Tribal FAST was added to the assignment. W-25 arrived and stretched a line in the front door and stop the fire was extending to the rest of the structure. Good hoseline placement was key in stopping this fire. A excellant job by first arriving crews. Smoke and heat damage was evident thru-out the structure. No one was hurt and units went into service within 45 minutes.

Red Flag Warning Brings Brush Fires

March 31, 2006 - With a red flag warning for most of CT, conditions were ripe for this brush fire to start in Taftville along Rt 12 behind Taft Station. Crews arrived to find a active fire along the railroad tracks, One 1 3/4 hoseline with a forestry gate and two forestry lines were used to knock down and extinguish the fire. One civilian was treated by Taftville and American personnnel for a medical condition that occurred while attempting to fight the fire prior to Taftville's arrival. This was the third time Taftville FD was at this location for a brush fire in the past two weeks


Taftville's ET-21 and ET-22 with Drivers (L to R) David Plante and Dan Auger