By Aaron Leo
Connecticut Post Online (Bridgeport, Connecticut)
Copyright 2007 MediaNews Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Fire Lt. John Macnicholl has been fired for pushing a captain while fighting a fire March 1 on Laurel Avenue.
He is the third firefighter who Chief Brian Rooney has terminated since October. Ivan Fossesigurani, the captain who Macnicholl is accused shoving, was injured and on sick leave since the incident, costing the city in overtime and medical bills, the chief said.
Macnicholl declined to comment last week on whether he will appeal the decision. He said he has hired a lawyer, Steven Smart of Danbury.
In a July 3 letter, Rooney terminated Macnicholl on departmental charges, including insubordination, use of obscene, profane or disrespectful language and workplace violence. He called the incident unprovoked and apparently without reason.
“You were asked and then ordered to several times by a superior officer during fire conditions to move aside” so the captain could place a hose to extinguish the fire, Rooney wrote.
“You refused and resorted to threats and physical violence until several firefighters stopped you,” he said.
Macnicholl, the chief wrote, showed “a lack of self-respect, self-control and teamwork on your part.”
Rooney said that in making his decision he had considered Macnicholl’s claim that he failed to “correctly care for [his] medical condition.”
The chief did not disclose Macnicholl’s condition.
Another firefighter, Fire Inspector Ismael Hernandez III was fired last October on charges of insubordination, including pointing at a deputy chief while shouting at him and approaching a superior in the Fire Marshal Division “aggressively” during a dispute. He also accused the chief of being responsible for a string of fire deaths in the city, Rooney wrote.
He demonstrated “a total lack of respect for authority,” Rooney said in a letter to Hernandez last October.
In March, Firefighter Joseph Cennamo was fired for working in his family’s masonry business while on sick leave. He was caught on videotape.
Both firefighters’ appeals of their termination are pending before the state Labor Board.
Meanwhile, Hernandez and a former supervisor, Fire Inspector Ronald Morales, have a pending federal lawsuit charging the city’s Fire Department with racism, but haven’t specified any particular incidents.