Ansonia Fire Reverberates Through The Volunteer Web Of Support

By Andrew Gorosko

The massive Latex Foam Products Inc. fire, which destroyed a major factory in downtown Ansonia Monday, had a ripple effect on surrounding communities.

The raging fire destroyed a 285,000-square-foot factory which manufactures plastic foam mattresses at 20 West Main Street in Ansonia. The blaze put 240 people out of work. The heavy, dark contaminant-laden smoke that rose from the industrial fire billowed up thousands of feet into the sky and spread with the winds. That smoke was visible for miles.

From the Castle Hill overlook in Newtown, the dark smoke rising from the fire 12 miles away was clearly visible on the southeast horizon. From the Castle Hill vantage point, the twin towers atop Canaan House and Kent House at Fairfield Hills framed the rising plume of smoke.

Due to the magnitude of the factory fire, Ansonia firefighters called for help from surrounding communities. Ansonia firemen called Monroe and Shelton firemen, among many others, to help extinguish the burning factory.

To buttress the depleted firefighting capacities in those two towns, Newtown sent its fire volunteers as reinforcements to Monroe and Shelton fire stations.

United Fire Company of Botsford Fire Chief Steve Belair said Tuesday that at about 12:15 pm Monday, five Botsford firefighters and a fire engine went to the Lower Stepney firehouse in Monroe to provide fire coverage for the Stepney firemen who had gone to the Ansonia fire.

Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company Chief Bill Halstead said that Sandy Hook firefighters sent four fire vehicles to Monroe and Shelton to help in the mutual aid effort.

Sandy Hook firemen sent one fire engine to the main fire station in Monroe, one fire engine to the White Hills Fire Company in Shelton, and sent a fire tanker and the fire rescue truck to the Echo Hose Company in Shelton. Twelve firefighters accompanied the four Sandy Hook fire vehicles on mutual aid duty, Chief Halstead said.

The Sandy Hook fire tanker and the fire rescue truck, plus their crews, were dispatched to a working house fire in Shelton at about 2:40 pm.

The Sandy Hook fire engine and its crew which had been dispatched to the main Monroe fire station went to an automatic fire alarm at Masuk High School in Monroe, said Chief Halstead. The Botsford fire crew stationed in the Lower Stepney firehouse also went to that automatic alarm, Chief Belair said. People working in the school erroneously triggered the alarm.

While the Sandy Hook fire trucks and fire crews were out of their firehouse on Riverside Road, a Southbury fire truck and crew stood by there.

Following a hectic day of mutual aid firefighting support, all Botsford and Sandy Hook firefighters were back in their fire stations with their fire trucks shortly after 5 pm.