“Not It,” Fire Officials Say

Acting New Haven Fire Marshal Faustino Lopez said it’s not his fault or that of his staff that the fire department has failed to file required incident reports to the state — as a game of ​“not me” finger-pointing began.

The finger-pointing followed the news, first reported Thursday by the Register’s Evan Lips, that the city has for a while now failed to file the required reports, and now the state is threatening to hit the city with fines if officials don’t start delivering them soon.

This is but the latest in a stream of controversies to deluge the department this fall, including accusations from ten members of the command staff that an assistant chief improperly placed firefighters’ lives at risk at the Aug. 25 blaze that destroyed Delaney’s Restaurant and Tap Room in Westville; the placing of Assistant chief Pat Egan on indefinite paid leave pending consideration of broader allegations of misconduct; public calls by the NAACP and New Haven Firebirds, who represent black firefighters, for an independent investigation into allegations of racial discrimination at the department; a vote by the fire union’s executive board to pursue an independent investigation into allegations that the union president personally tried to negotiate a six-figure pension deal while also negotiating a two-year extension of the firefighters’ contract with the city (a charge the union president denied); and a lawsuit filed against Chief Wright by a man who failed in his quest to become a firefighter; the suit charges that Wright retaliated against him because Wright had a romantic relationship with the man’s ex-girlfriend (also an aspiring firefighter). (Wright called the lawsuit ​“complete and total nonsense.”)

Acting Fire Marshal Lopez (pictured) summoned reporters to fire headquarters on Grand Avenue Thursday afternoon to offer his side of the latest story.

He said that he does not have the staff or the officers trained to file the reports. And he most certainly does not have the proper computer equipment and software to file the required reports, he said; the office still uses MS-DOS and floppy disks.

He placed blame on the failure of former Fire Chief Michael Grant and current Assistant Chief Egan to address these problems when brought to their attention. He released a sheaf of memos to prove the point.

He also said that State Fire Marshall William Abbott should share in the blame because these problems have been ongoing and he has personally reported them to state officials. (Abbot did not respond to a call seeking comment.)

Lopez, who has been acting fire marshal since 2010, said that at least going back to the days of the last fire marshal, Joseph Cappucci, his office has made a consistent and well documented request for a data control officer at most, and at least training on the National Fire Incident Reporting System.

With a stack of memos in hand, Lopez additionally pointed out that going back as far as 2009, Cappucci and then Lopez repeatedly asked then-Chief Grant to fill vacant positions including those of fire marshal and inspectors.

“The staff continues to make the effort to respond to request for information when it comes to computer reporting,” Lopez wrote in a memo to Grant in May 23, 2012. ​“Although our skills have increased tremendously from our initial appointments, we are still in desperate need of the proper training to include NFIRS reporting in the job that we do in the Fire Marshal’s Office.”

Two months after Lopez sent that memo, he sent another requesting that his staff stop ​“filling out the times for the enroutes, arrivals and recalls of fire apparatus to medical and fire incidents because we could be held liable for the erroneous times.”

Lopez said when he initially approached Grant about his concerns, he said he was told ​“to just put something in.” But he realized if the correct information wasn’t entered a cross reference could easily proved that the numbers were inaccurate and could open the department up for liability.

“The documentation is a legal document and must be completed by the responding companies with correct codes and times,” Lopez wrote in a July 27, 2012 memo. ​“The information should not be falsely entered.”

Lopez said that data control officer position was responsible for reporting all data to the state and answering official Freedom of Information requests, but was eliminated under negotiations between the fire union, of which current Assistant Chief Egan was then president, and the city.

Egan, who is on administrative leave, and retired fire chief Grant both confirmed that the data control officer position was eliminated in union bargaining.

Grant said also that part of the negotiations included adding the duties of the position to that of the two additional fire inspectors who were added to the staff.

“There was even extra money put into the salaries for those positions,” he said. ​“I do recall some concerns about training, and prior to my leaving classes were put together by the state fire marshal, but I don’t know where it went from there.”

Fire union President James Kottage said the recent smack on the knuckles from the state is only a symptom of a larger problem: The city is not following the law. He said the department hasn’t filed the reports since at least 2012, and the data that has been sent is probably incorrect. He said the fire union has been pushing for three years or more for a fire marshal to be hired, now its filed suit over the issue.

“The city has a huge history of not following the law,” Kottage said. ​“And it is not the fault of the employees in there. They need a leader.”

Lopez agrees wholeheartedly with Kottage about the need for leadership from a permanent fire marshal, but said it won’t be him. He said at one time he wanted the fire marshal job, but not any more.

Kottage said that new Fire Chief Allyn Wright, City Chief Administrative Officer Michael Carter and Mayor Toni Harp have inherited problems that predate them, but that doesn’t change the need for proper oversight and the need to hold someone at a high level accountable.

“There has been reckless disregard for the law and there is a paper trail that has been going to certain people,” he said. ​“There is a much bigger problem here.”