New Haven Independent

Four units arrived at the Roydon Road house around 5:45 p.m. Thursday. Within minutes everything was under control.

Click on the play arrow to watch what happened on the scene.

Bonnie Cofield was visibly shaken as she watched the firefighters go in and out of the house. Her father, Rev. Cofield, one of the city’s leading church and civil-rights figures for decades, passed away on March 28. The fire started on the stove top.

“I was cooking, and my mother left her medicine. We tried to go get her medicine, and I forgot” about the stove, Bonnie Cofield said.

Family and friends consoled her.

So did West Battalion Chief Jim Stacey, in between directing his men.

“Our guys got it knocked down pretty fast. To us it was minor,” Stacey said. “To her, it was major, especially with what she’s been through.”

No one was injured in the one-alarm fire. The kitchen had extensive smoke damage.

Stacey’s crew contained another small house fire on the block with a swift response back in January.