By Martin B. Cassidy
Staff Writer
October 14, 2007
Spending millions to end lagging backcountry fire protection is a
top priority of a new long-range blueprint for the Greenwich Fire
Department.
While the plan addresses overall protection in the town with a
projected $36 million in spending over 15 years for firehouse
renovations, equipment, and other advances, a prime goal is
achieving quick improvement in coverage of the backcountry, where
many homeowners struggle to obtain fire insurance, said Fire
Chief Peter Siecienski.
"The importance of what we are doing is setting out an
overall plan so you have something to guide us and follow,"
Siecienski said of the long-range plan which covers the
department's capital and operational plans.
While assembling the plan, Siecienski dealt with some of the
insurers to find out what steps would result in better insurance
ratings for the town's residents.
In the 2009-10 fiscal year, the town has budgeted $2 million to
build the long-awaited King Street Fire Station, which will
require another $1 million in fire engines and more than $1
million annually for 16 additional firefighters to staff the
house, Siecienski said. Those expenditures are included in the
$36 million total, he said.
In the next three to five years, Siecienski said he expects to
spend up to $1 million to install another 25 dry hydrants and
cisterns in parts of the backcountry where firefighters deal with
a lack of water supplies when fighting blazes.
"In the mix of things we can move the dry hydrant program
more quickly and hopefully accomplish more in the near
future," Siecienski said.
The fire department has already located 12 potential lakes,
ponds, and other private water sources where they hope to gain
permission to put dry hydrants, suction devices which can be
tapped into any water source four feet deep or more, Siecienski
said.
In some areas where dry hydrants can't be installed, the
department will build underground cisterns which can hold up to
30,000 gallons of water which could be drawn to put out fires,
Siecienski said.
The water supplies will hopefully curb astronomical insurance
rates for backcountry homeowners, who often have trouble
obtaining fire insurance, said Laurence Simon, chairman of the
Board of Estimate and Taxation Budget Committee, who worked with
Siecienski on the master plan.
In December 2004, the New Jersey-based International Organization
for Standardization, an independent rating agency whose analyses
are used by insurance companies to set home insurance rates, gave
the town a split rating of 4/8B, with 1 meaning the highest level
of fire protection.
The first digit -- 4 -- is a rating of fire protection in parts
of the town within 5 miles of a fire station and no more than
1,000 feet from a hydrant. The second digit and letter -- 8B --
is the rating for most of the backcountry, where many homes are
more than 5 miles from a fire station and more than 1,000 feet
from a hydrant or water source that can provide 250 gallons per
minute for 20 minutes during the initial response to a fire.
"Fire insurance in the backcountry is very expensive and we
hope we will be able to provide some type of relief by improving
protection," Simon said.
Other aspects of the master plan include criteria for upcoming
renovations to the Glenville, Byram, and Sound Beach fire
stations and what kind of fire engines and other equipment each
house should have.
Siecienski said each of the stations will serve various purposes,
so future renovations must take into account both space for a
potential expansion of the number of career firefighters and
sufficient community meeting space for volunteer companies and
other groups."Some of the departments have served as
community hubs while others are less that way," Siecienski
said. "It's important that they be designed individually
with that in mind."
Careful choice of fire engines so they are suited to the
emergencies they most frequently deal with, whether highway
accidents, fires or rescue, is also a concern, Siecienski said.
He cited recent problems with Cos Cob Engine 2, one of the
department's larger and heavier vehicles, which is poorly suited
to that neighborhood, where many streets are narrow.
As a result, the engine has had a series of mechanical problems
and minor accidents that could have been avoided with a lighter
more appropriate engine, Siecienski said.
"In that case Cos Cob tried to make that truck into too many
things," Siecienski said. "There are narrow streets in
Cos Cob that aren't suited to a larger truck."
The methodical approach of a master plan will hopefully result in
a marked improvement in water supply and falling insurance rates
for backcountry residents, said Joan Caldwell, a Riversville Road
resident and chairwoman of the District 11/Northwest delegation
of the Representative Town Meeting."It is a master plan to
deliver better fire protection but the most need was and is in
the backcountry," Caldwell said. "I'm glad the town is
going in this direction and I praise the fire chief for going in
this direction."
The master plan will be reviewed by the Board of Estimate and
Taxation, who asked for the plan to get a picture of how capital
and operational expenditures would improve performance, Simon
said.
Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.