Waterford — A fire Sunday afternoon has again raised concerns about the town’s restructuring of fire department coverage.

New London and Waterford fire departments extinguished a small exterior fire Sunday afternoon at the SpringHill Suites, a hotel at 401 North Frontage Road. Waterford Fire, specifically the Cohanzie station, did not have a ladder truck available. As a result, New London Fire showed up on a mutual aid call.

Fire Services Director Bruce Miller said firefighters from Cohanzie had a response time of four minutes. These firefighters were on scene for four minutes and started to breach a column, which was continuing to emit smoke, near the entrance of the hotel before requesting the New London Fire Department.

“The NLFD ladder truck arrived on scene within six minutes after being requested,” Miller said. “The Cohanzie ladder truck is the first due unit, and that vehicle was having a mechanical issue being tended to, so it was out of service to respond. The Jordan ladder truck was in service, but on-duty personnel are still being trained on that unit, and there were no volunteer drivers at the station. The Quaker Hill ladder truck did respond but arrived after NLFD was on scene.”

Firefighters responded about 2:30 p.m. It took crews approximately 45 minutes to put the fire out. Waterford Fire Marshal Peter Schlink said no one was injured. He said the fire started outside in some mulch and damaged a small part of the exterior of the hotel.

“It was confined mostly to the exterior. One of the façade columns at the entrance — it looked like what happened was the mulch caught fire at the base of it,” Schlink said. “One of the managers of the hotel saw it, went out and got the garden hose, and put most of it out, but he saw some smoke inside of the columns, so he called the fire department.”

Schlink said the cause of the fire was likely “carelessly discarded smoking material.” Miller noted that the initial report from the chief officer on scene said nothing was showing; that the fire was out.

“We had already arranged mutual aid, they’re always available to come, and they came, so the system worked the way it was supposed to,” Miller said.

Quaker Hill Fire Co. Chief Vincent Ukleja has been leading an effort among residents to get the town to put a paid firefighter back on staff. Numerous Facebook posts, a petition, even a meeting among residents at the firehouse culminated in multiple town-hall style meetings with the Board of Selectmen, which are ongoing. Ukleja said on March 1 of this year the town stopped providing resources for a paid firefighter at the Quaker Hill firehouse. Now, he says he’s concerned a volunteer-only staff will not be enough to properly cover the area.

First Selectman Rob Brule and Miller have faced pressure to address the fire coverage complaints in Quaker Hill. They maintain that the town has stronger fire and emergency services coverage due to a recent agreement with Waterford Ambulance Service. The deal aims to ease the burden on firefighters by having Waterford Ambulance Service personnel be the primary responders to medical emergencies, with help from qualified firefighters if necessary. 

On Sunday, seven firefighters from Cohanzie, three from Quaker Hill, two from Jordan and two Waterford Ambulance Service EMTs responded to the scene of the fire.

Miller spoke of why Jordan firefighters were not qualified to handle the ladder truck, an issue magnified because Cohanzie’s ladder truck was out of commission Sunday.

“It is no secret that recent changes have left us working at minimal staffing levels. We have been working to get our part-time staff cross-trained to work at various stations. This requires them to get qualified on several pieces of equipment to be properly signed off,” Miller said. “The schedule is filled to have drivers available to operate all apparatus. When openings occur, they are offered as overtime. We do not have a mandatory order-in policy; shifts remaining open are then filled with available personnel. We have several volunteers that routinely drive fire apparatus as well.”

Incentive program

Monday night, the Representative Town Meeting passed an ordinance creating an incentive program for volunteer firefighters and fire police. Public Protection & Safety Standing Committee of the RTM Chairman Timothy Condon said during the meeting that the program is supposed to help Waterford retain and recruit volunteers.

Volunteer firefighters or fire police members have to receive 50 points for the year to gain a stipend. To earn a point, they must “attend an incident and/or respond to and arrive at an activated station before the incident commander dismisses the assignment.” If volunteers reach the 50-point threshold, they are given $7 per point. Volunteers also are paid $7 for each subsequent point after they’ve accrued 50. The initial estimate is that this program will cost $50,000 to run but, if successful, that amount could increase.

Ukleja and Miller are on the same side on this matter: Both believe the program is a positive development. Miller was one of its engineers. Ukleja chimed in during Monday’s meeting to say he thinks the program will increase volunteerism in Quaker Hill and cut down problems.

s.spinella@theday.com