Norwalk firefighters answer more 1,000 calls in 2019

NORWALK — The city's fire department responds to calls, inspects commercial buildings in the city and does its best to do all of its work in-house. "We cover the city of Norwalk, we cover all of Norwalk Township and half of Bronson Township," acting fire chief Rick Perry said. "That equals out to about 50 square miles." All of the firefighters in the department are EMS certified and there are 18 full-time firefighters, including chief John Soisson. Soisson is reporting for duty Friday for his last official day as chief before retirement. "We have a chief and we have four captains, one of those captains currently is the executive officer of fire, which is myself. My duties are to assist the chief and to actually run the inspection bureau," Perry said. "The other three captains are in charge of their shifts. There are three lieutenants on each shift and three firefighter engineers. There's one extra shift that does a floating rotation with my schedule." The department answered more than 1,000 calls in the last year. The department's annual report should be completed in a week or two. Norwalk Fire also has an ambulance service partnership with Fisher-Titus and North Central EMS as a backup. At least one paramedic, of the department's seven, works during a shift. The firefighters work 24-hour shifts, from 7 a.m. to 7 a.m. the next day. The type of schedule is called a California swing. The station has a four-man minimum of staff. "That averages out to a 56-hour workweek," Perry said. "Normally, they work a day, off a 24-hour shift, they come back on a 24-hour shift and then back off. Then they work one more shift and they're off four shifts in a row." Perry said during the first hour of a shift, firefighters meet with the previous shift to go over calls from the day before. "There was an alarm last night at one of the hotels, so this shift will have to follow up on it and make sure that they're following the proper procedures to get their alarm systems back and ready again," Perry said. "The rest of the day, they have daily chores just like any other job. Depending on what's on the schedule, every day is different." Firefighters have different checks to make on their trucks each day and cleaning jobs around the station. All firefighters are also certified to inspect buildings for safety. "Each shift will get about 10 to 15 inspections a month they have to complete," Perry said. "Our main job is to get through every commercial building in the city of Norwalk and do an annual inspection required by the state. Last year we did over 500 inspections." They also complete environmental studies for insurance companies, review pre-construction site plans, fire suppression system reports, fireworks permits, home inspections and construction final inspections. Perry said the fire department mows its own grass, cleans the building and repairs trucks in-house whenever possible. Last week, firefighters replaced an engine themselves. "We've saved thousands of dollars thanks to Capt. Dan (Hunt)," Perry said. When on a shift, at 4:30 p.m. firefighters are able to take some time to themselves. "A lot of guys will work out, or paperwork, some guys just like to relax," Perry said. "It's a long day and we're still responding to calls during that time."