Date: Fri 31-Oct-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Fairfield-Hills-fire-mutual

Full Text:

Fire Commissioners Reject State Mutual Aid Request

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

The Board of Fire Commissioners has turned down a request that the town

re-establish a mutual aid firefighting agreement between it and the

state-owned Fairfield Hills property.

Board Chairman Kevin Cragin said this week that after considering the request,

board members chose not to re-enter the agreement under which the town would

help fight fires at Fairfield Hills, when requested, and Fairfield Hills fire

staffers would help the town put out fires, when asked.

Such mutual aid agreements are common throughout Connecticut among volunteer

and paid fire services.

In May, as the Fairfield Hills Fire Department's membership dwindled, the

board canceled its mutual aid firefighting agreement with the state to prevent

the town from automatically being dispatched to all fire calls at the

state-owned Fairfield Hills.

The past mutual aid agreement allowed either the town or the state to

unilaterally terminate the agreement provided that ten days' notice of

termination is provided in writing.

The Tunxis Management Company, the firm which operates Fairfield Hills for the

state, submitted a letter to the Board of Fire Commissioners seeking to

re-establish the mutual aid agreement, Mr Cragin said. The board unanimously

turned down the request, he said.

In a September 17 letter to the Board of Fire Commissioners, Garry Crosson of

Tunxis Management, writes, in part, "Fire safety is a critical issue and must

be addressed. We will continue to provide primary response and simply ask that

you renew the mutual aid agreement that had existed for many years."

In response, Mr Cragin wrote in an October 27 letter to Mr Crosson, "The board

decided not to renew the agreement.... The changes the state implemented at

Fairfield Hills (have) resulted in a completely different situation than

existed in the past."

Although the past mutual aid agreement was mutually beneficial to the town and

Fairfield Hills for decades, Fairfield Hills, a former state psychiatric

hospital, now has only a skeleton crew of three firefighters, meaning that the

town would end up providing much more mutual aid to Fairfield Hills than

Fairfield Hills would ever provide to the town, Mr Cragin noted.

In the past, Fairfield Hills had as many as 20 men in its fire department, he

said. In the past, the town's having a mutual aid agreement with Fairfield

Hills was akin to having access to a sixth volunteer fire company, he added.

The Board of Fire Commissioners makes decisions which are in the town's best

interests, Mr Cragin said, noting the agency must be careful in its dealings

with the state government.

Re-entering a mutual aid agreement could cause the town to expend much time,

equipment and money in fighting fires at the 650-acre Fairfield Hills, he

said.

The state presence at Fairfield Hills has decreased in recent years as the

state Department of Mental Health pursued its policy of patient

"deinstitutionalization." Fairfield Hills' psychiatric facilities closed in

December 1995. The state is seeking to either sell or rent its holdings there.

When the town canceled the mutual aid agreement last May, it had been in

preliminary talks with the state on a state request that the town assume

regular firefighting duties at Fairfield Hills. Local firefighters had

cautiously approached that state request, explaining that the future uses of

the sprawling campus are unclear and thus the future firefighting

responsibilities there are unknown.