NHFD Hails Its Heroes

“You’re crawling down the hallway of a burning building. Your ears are beginning to burn. Your hair is beginning to catch on fire … then you hear a moan. You reach up and grab someone lying on a bed, and out you go.

“There’s no greater feeling than to be be able to save people’s lives.”

That feeling, evoked by Ret. Fire Chief Michael Grant, and similar exploits of valor and meritorious conduct — at fires, on the cliffs of East Rock, or performing rescues from the icy Mill River — were recounted Sunday afternoon during an inspirational awards ceremony marking the 155th anniversary of the New Haven Fire Department .

Several hundred family members and friends of the NHFD filled the auditorium of Hill Regional Career High School with hoots and applause as dozens of firefighters, in the presence of Fire Chief John Alston Jr., several retired chiefs, Mayor Harp, and other city officials, were given certificates recognizing their honor, valor, and merit in the line of duty.

It was the first time the department had recognized its own in such a public fashion since 2002, said department historian and retired Battalion Chief Edward Flynn, Jr. By everyone’s testimony it was long overdue.

When Alston took up the helm of the department, he said he had wanted to do this immediately. Yet as a newcomer to the city, he didn’t yet know the individuals and the full history. So he put together a committee whose members combed through 14 years of post-incident reports. (After an incident if a supervisor feels a firefighter has distinguished himself or herself, a report is filed.)

They selected 35 incidents between 2002 and this year, many with multiple awardees. Alston apologized if other deserving members of the ranks were not included.

The department’s highest recognition — the medal of honor — was presented to Ret. Lt. James Schwarz, who sustained a career-ending injury when he led the way in an Oct. 6, 2011 high angle rescue of a stranded climber on East Rock.

Other participating rescuers, including Captain Miguel Rosado Jr., Ret. Lt. James Kearney and Ret. Firefighter John Cretella, received the medal of valor, the department’s second highest recognition for their work in the same incident.

In his reflections on the dangerous nature of the job, retired Chief Grant gave a shout-out to one of the many awardees, retired Firefighter James Brown, who received a medal of valor for his work in the earliest incident marked in the ceremony, a residential fire at 121 County St on Nov. 23, 2002.

He described Brown and the other firefighters arriving to see fire already engulfing the first two floors of the building there and threatening the third. In the window on the third floor was a 7‑year-old girl gasping for breath as the smoke and heat threatened to blow out the side of the building. Brown climbed the ladder, on which the fire was beginning to impinge, and carried the girl down to safety.

When they got on the ground, ​“the ladder melted in half,” Grant concluded.

Firefighter Jack Whalen also was the recipient of a medal of merit for his work in that rescue.

Firefighters Nate Paragallo and Patrick Sheiffele from Squad One on Whitney Avenue dropped by to applaud their ​“ladder man,” Ken Nolan, who was receiving a medal of merit, along with Capain Justin Bialecki,.

“It’s great to watch your brothers and sisters get recognized,” said Sheiffele. ​“You don’t just have to look to your superiors for inspiration.”

Master of Ceremonies and longtime Fire Commissioner William Celentano said that he and Chief Alston, who is marking his first year anniversary on the job, had several other purposes in mounting the ceremonies.

They also wanted to recognize outstanding actions not only by their uniformed ranks but also their many civilian helpers.

Those included city staffers, dispatchers, and administrators, and also courageous regular civilians like Matt Feiner and John Brehon, of the Devil’s Gear Bike Shop on Orange Street. During the Sept. 2 fire at the Trinity Bar and Restaurant, the pair went up, fire extinguisher in hand, to help people trapped on the upper floors of that burning building.

“They attempted to save their neighbors,” said Alston, ​“and we know that because when our firefighters got up there, they found the fire extinguisher.”

They were joined in receipt of the department’s civilian award by city administrative staffers Denise D’Amato, Cherlyn Poindexter, and Lisa Sims.

Celentano, one of the department historians, said the event was also designed to mark the April 13, 1910 fire at the New Haven jail on Whalley Avenue, which took the lives of six firefighters, the costliest day in the department’s history. Six firefighters were burned beyond recognition in that blze. One had to have both hands amputated and wear a cloth mask over his hands and face for the duration of his life in New Haven

“Some of that is gruesome,” commented Celentano, but it’s important that people hear what firefighters face every day.

Those who know New Haven’s history wanted to mark the 60th anniversary this past January Franklin Street factory fire, in which 15 people died, the highest civilian fire death in city history.

Most of all the ceremonies were a passionate shout-out to the men and women of the New Haven fire service and to their families who support them in their dangerous work.

Alston announced a new posthumous award, which was presented to the family of Firefighter Linda Cohens, who died from non-fire related causes. That award, he said, will be in future named in her honor.

“If I could put a medal on everyone, I would,” Alston said. ​“Because when you sign on to be a firefighter, you’re already a hero in my book.”