Man Rescued From Fire; Firefighter Burned, Hospitalized

(Updated) Firefighters rescued a man who had passed out in the midst of a raging fire on Dickerman Street late Saturday night.

The rescued man, as well as a firefighter, ended up in the Connecticut Burn Center with serious injuries.

The man, 60-year-old Larry Grant Sr., subsequently died Monday at the hospital.

The fire call came in at 11:56 p.m. Saturday. It was the city’s third fire of the day. (An earlier fire displaced 65 tenants of a group home on Howard Avenue; another minor fire occurred on Sheffield Avenue.)

Firefighters arrived at 64 Dickerman to find the two-story house in flames.

Three people lived in the 95-year-old house: Grant occupied one floor, his ex-wife and child another.

The woman and child had made it out of the house. Grant was still inside.

Battling flames and smoke, three firefighters from Engine 4 headed up the back staircase to look for him. One of the trio, Patrick Grant, worked the house to clear a path. The other two, Lt. Rob Celentano and Leon Brown, found Grant lying by a window at the top of the second floor of the staircase.

Grant had passed out. He was in cardiac arrest, according to Assistant Chief Matthew Marcarelli. ​“They rescued him out the of building. They did CPR on him at the scene and successfully resuscitated him.” Grant was transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital, then on to the Connecticut Burn Center at Bridgeport Hospital, where he remains in ​“extremely critical condition,” Marcarelli said.

Firefighters knocked down the fire in 45 minutes, had it fully under control in a little over an hour.

A rookie New Haven firefighter named Jason Rivera (who previously served in Stamford’s department) was among the other firefighters making an ​“aggressive push” up a staircase to battle the blaze, Marcarelli said. Once they finished the job, Rivera started feeling pain. He went to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with second-degree burns from his knees to his ankles as well as on his wrist and stomach. He, too, is now being treated at the Bridgeport Burn Center. [Update: Rivera had been released from the hospital Sunday afternoon.]

Challenging Conditions

During the blaze, firefighters were hampered by ​“hoarding throughout the house,” Marcarelli said.

The winter weather got in the way, too.

All that accumulated snow and ice narrowed the road, limiting the room within which firefighters could operate, according to Battallion Chief Billy Gould.

Then there was the subfreezing cold.

“As soon as any water hits the ground, it ices over and makes it treacherous under your feet. Guys were falling down, twisting,” Gould said. ​“Guys get wet, you come outside, your gear freezes solid. The breathing apparatus gets cold. They’ve got to constantly monitor the pump. The hose line freezes solid if you don’t keep water moving. That compounds our operations.”

The fire’s cause is under investigation.

Meanwhile, the house has ​“extensive” fire damage on its second and third floors, as well as smoke and water damage on the first. The fire damaged a neighboring property, too.

Fire union Secretary/Treasurer Frank Ricci visited Rivera in the hospital Sunday. He sent in these photos of Rivera’s injuries. ​“Firefighters are told in the academy that if you do this job long enough you will get hurt,” Ricci said. ​“Probationary firefighter Rivera’s burns are a direct result of putting the public’s safety above his own. All members did a tremendous job in combating this tough fire.”