Frank Ricci confronting former then-Interim Fire Chief Ralph Black over promotion process.
New Haven firefighter Frank Ricci has been on the national stage — reaching millions on national TV to talk about a 2009 landmark Supreme Court case in his name and testifying against a future Supreme Court justice. In February an actor will play Ricci on the Yale Rep stage in a new play about that case, called Good Faith: Four Chats about Race and the New Haven Fire Department.
In between those stage roles, Ricci has been involved in day-to-day decisions at the fire department as the president of the local union, a post to which he was reelected this month. He has already taken on a state firefighters’ union over dues and political representation (and won) and spoken up against closing firehouses or changing New Haven’s reliance on firefighters to handle medical calls. He has worked with Fire Chief John Alston Jr. to start training firefighters out in the field — atop East Rock, by the Q Bridge —to handle death-defying calls. (See above video.)
Ricci, the 44-year-old son of a leading Connecticut crusader for DWI laws, talked about all that during an appearance Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. (Watch it in the video below.) He also described the one day he’ll never forget on the job. It occurred almost two decades ago, when he and his colleagues responded to a fire at Yale University’s Saybrook College. Here’s what happened, in Ricci’s words:
Where’s The Security Guard?
The engine company was on a stabbing. A fire came in at Yale with a report of a security guard trapped. The college was under construction.
We made entry without a hose line, attempting to rescue the trapped security guard.
As I made my way into the room on the second floor in high heat zero visibility conditions, I broke out a window when I heard a hose line operating to ventilate. As I put my hands back down to crawl, I ended up in a shaft.
I fell down to the bottom of the shaft. My mask got dislodged. It started taking in nasty smoke.
For a split section, I wasn’t sure if we were getting out there.
As I was getting my mask on, I heard a ka-kink. It was Capt. Bobby Gilhooly searching for the same guy I was searching for
The ka-kink was a Halligan bar falling next to me. It fell out of his hand.
He landed on top of me, ripping the muscles on my shoulders. He calls me “cushion” now. He bruised his hip.
The hose line that I could hear but not see when I broke the window, Engine Company 4 was operating at the bottom of the stair shaft. When I fell, they actually radioed an urgent message.
They thought the roof was coming down, when it was really just us falling in the shaft.
They pulled me out. They pulled Bobby Gilhooly out.
We got outside. Ironically, there was an individual there with a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cup with a security uniform on. The deputy chief looked at him. He [said], “Oh, I went to get a coffee.” So he went in the back door, then went out the front door; he figured he would get a coffee while the fire department was coming. Because the fire was in control of the whole first and second floor of the dorm.
So we were all trying to find him while he was getting a coffee.
I feel it in my shoulders every day. I was out of work for seven months.
it only takes a tenth of a second on this job to kill you or injure you.
New Haven Firefighters
Firefighters practicing aerial rescues.
New Haven Firefighters
The truth is often complex and the media do a disservice when they reduce complex matters to a headline that polarizes everyone.
Thank you for this article and all the links.
A salute to Mr. Ricci and his colleagues for their service.