nothin 5 Fires Unrelated; Cigarettes Caused 2 | New Haven Independent

5 Fires Unrelated; Cigarettes Caused 2

Paul Bass Photo

Harp swears in Marcarelli.

Firefighters swarmed into City Hall Thursday — not to put out flames, as they’ve been doing all week, but to watch two department officials get sworn in.

Mayor Toni Harp swore in Matthew Marcarelli as the department’s new assistant chief of operations; and Kenneth Oliver as emergency medical services coordinator.

Marcarelli, a 20-year veteran of the force, has already been filling the role for the past week.

And what a week it has been.

Firefighters have raced to the scenes of five separate fires since last weekend, prompting the question: Why so much fire all of a sudden?

It turns out that theories that immediately come to mind — an arsonist on the loose, say, or unsafe heating practices in the cold weather — don’t explain the spate of fires, according to Fire Marshal Bobby Doyle (at left in photo, at Thursday’s swearing-in), who has looked into the incidents. Four of the five had different causes, he said:

Brad Young Photo

Front of Winthrop Ave. building, with the front wall pushed out.

• One fire was an arson: Wednesday’s blaze at a home at Winthrop Avenue and Goffe Street. (Read about that here.)

• An ignored burning cigarette caused the fatal fire overnight Saturday into Sunday on Dickerman Street.

• A cigarette also caused the fire that displaced 65 tenants of a Howard Avenue group home.

• A furnace malfunction led to a fire on Sheffield Avenue.

• An electrical problem caused the fire at India Palace restaurant on Howe Street.

I blame [Assistant] Chief Marcarelli for the fires,” Chief Allyn Wright (pictured) quipped at Thursday afternoon’s ceremony. Before [he took over], it was very quiet.”

Then Wright got serious: He said he chose Marcarelli for the job because of experience handling the operations side of the department, including quarterbacking the fire department’s emergency response to this winter’s storms. He’s my Michael Jordan,” Wright said.

After Mayor Harp swore in Oliver to the emergency medical services position …

… his predecessor, Abraham Colon (who retired from the job), pinned the badge onto his uniform, and gave him a congratulatory hug.

As firefighters filled the second-floor City Hall atrium for the ceremony …

… cadets from the training academy lined the third-floor balcony to watch.

Sign up for our morning newsletter

Don't want to miss a single Independent article? Sign up for our daily email newsletter! Click here for more info.


Post a Comment

Commenting has closed for this entry

Comments

There were no comments