By Alison Cross
The Day
DANIELSON, Conn. — After weeks of controversy and a wave of resignations, the Borough of Danielson found more common ground than division at a meeting between its council and fire department Thursday night.
Thursday’s meeting came just a week after more than a dozen volunteers — including the interim chief and deputy chief — walked away from the department in response to the Borough Council’s decision to solicit external applicants for the role of fire chief.
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Despite the controversy, the remaining fire department members and borough councilors appeared to be on the same page as they opened a new chapter, aligned in their goals of increasing communication, ensuring adequate staffing and reducing volunteer burnout.
In his first week as interim chief, Keven McNeill said he found the “department was left in disarray.”
Problems identified by McNeill and others include missing and outdated incident reports, the absence of background checks for new members, unsafe handling of contaminated turnout gear, ill-fitting equipment, and theft of department inventory.
McNeill said he is working to address these issues, gain the trust of his members and stabilize the department as part of a 100-day recovery plan.
McNeill said the department has 15 members. Of those volunteers, four are certified interior firefighters, five have an emergency medical services certification, six are certified drivers, and seven are certified for scene support.
“When you actually look at the reality of what went on, our mass exodus was not that bad,” McNeill said. “You have a good group of people here that really want to make a difference. You have some veterans wanting to come back (and) they’re going to make a difference. It’s just going to take time, it’s going to take trust, it’s going to take transparency.”
McNeill underscored that “the days of keeping the Borough Council in the dark are over.”
“We’re here to work with the Borough Council to revive this agency and to bring it back,” McNeill said.
Borough Councilman and Fire Commissioner Scott Clifford said every member of the fire service should know “that this council and the fire commissioners support the members in this department 100%.”
“We’re asking for transparency. We’ve been asking for six years. We finally have a group of individuals who are hearing us and understand where we stand, and we understand where you stand,” Clifford said.
During the meeting, fire service members also spoke in favor of limiting the types of medical calls the department responds to as a way to reduce volunteer burnout.
They said nonemergency medical calls now make up the bulk of the department’s annual call volume. Because KB Ambulance Corps is just a mile up the road and can respond more quickly to the scene, the patient is most often already en route to the hospital by the time a fire truck arrives, firefighters said.
They also stressed the need to staff the department with at least two volunteers at all times.
Firefighter Brent Allen reminded the council that these concerns are not new.
“A little under a year ago ... I came and stood at the end of this table with the commissioners, the borough president and the three chiefs, and I said, ‘We need help,’” Allen said. “I cried for help, and I don’t know if it fell on deaf ears ... because I, amongst others, were running calls in the middle of the night, during the day, by ourselves, with an engine, going to box alarms, medical calls, cardiacs — you name it.”
“That has to end now,” Allen said. “That truck shouldn’t be rolling out of this station without at least two people on it. It needs to change. ... It’s unsafe, and we can’t keep doing it.”
Borough President Heidi Clifford said the council will continue to analyze call data and work with department leadership to implement staffing changes where needed, address safety concerns and reduce the department’s medical call response, among other changes.
Going into Thursday’s meeting, Clifford said, the council “did not know what to expect” from the evening.
“We didn’t know if anyone would even come. We didn’t know if anyone would even be willing to speak,” Clifford said.
After the discussion, Clifford said it was clear that the remaining members of the fire service and the council are more aligned than they thought.
“We’re a lot closer together than we realized,” Clifford said. “On both sides, we are experiencing the same thoughts, the same feelings about what needs to be done, what we want to have done, and where we want to go with this. And I think that we can work through this and make this department stronger.”
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