Double-LODD in Connecticut

Update:  Fireground radio added.  Scroll down.

TWO BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT FIREFIGHTERS,  Lt. Steven Velazquez and FF Michael Baik were on the top floor of a 3-story house conducting a primary search when they got in trouble.  They were able to send out a mayday call and the RIT got to them quickly, but despite having  CPR perfomed on the scene, but they were pronounced dead at the hospital.

Connecticut Post photo

The alarm was dispatched just before 4 pm Saturday afternoon.  The Connecticut Post is reporting:

Deputy Fire Chief Robert Petrucelli said he arrived on the scene 15 minutes into the fire and found heavy smoke coming from the second and third floors.

“Firefighters were making progress on the fire,” (Bridgeport Mayor Bill) Finch said, “knocking down the flames.”

He said Velazquez and Baik were the furthest inside the house, doing search and rescue and ventilating the house.

There’s no immediate word on what caused the fire, and Finch said the State Fire Marshal’s Office will be investigating not only the cause of the blaze, but also looking at the equipment used by the deceased firefighters. Officials believe, however, that the fire started in the second-floor apartment.

Understandably, there will be little more factual information released until a thorough investigation is carried out.

WTNH-TV filed this video report from the scene:

The Connecticut Post continues:

Almost “half the department” was at the fire, the mayor said, and the first truck — Engine 3 — was actually on its way to an elevator rescue when firefighters spotted the smoke and diverted to the fire.

Firefighters from Milford and Fairfield provided mutual aid during the fire, and Fairfield firefighters, their equipment and their chief, Richard Felner, stayed to fill in for the Bridgeport crews.

At the Congress Street headquarters, Felner said, the Bridgeport firefighters were being debriefed and receiving any help they might need. “We’ll stay here as long as they want us; we’re here for them. It’s a bad, bad scene, especially for the crew that was working with them.”

Bridgeport apparatus responding to the fire were Engines 1, 3, 4 and 7, Ladders 5 and 11 and Rescue 5.

Finch said he was grateful for the assistance from other communities. “Our firefighters need to go home,” he said.

STATter911 has a good background article on Lt. Velazquez HERE.
Read the early story from the Connecticut Post HERE.

Update, 9:30 am.  Fireground Scene Audio has posted the radio traffic:

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