The Officers and Members of the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters of Connecticut  mourns the Line of Duty deaths of Lt. Velazquez and Fire Fighter Baik of the Bridgeport Fire Department, Local 834. 

Our Brothers made the ultimate sacrifice on Saturday, July 24^th at a structure fire at 41 Elmwood Avenue in their City. 

Peter S. Carozza, Jr., President,  pledges our total support to Local 834 and the Bridgeport Fire Department at this time of great loss, and extends our deepest sympathies to the members of Local 834 and the families of Lt. Velazquez and Fire Fighter Baik.

Friday Services Scheduled for Fallen Bridgeport, Local 834 Fire Fighters

July 28, 2010 – Thousands of fire fighters, family and friends are expected to travel to Bridgeport, Connecticut, to pay their respects to two fallen Bridgeport Local 834 fire fighters on Friday, July 30. Steven Velasquez, 40, and Michel Baik, 49, made the ultimate sacrifice Saturday, July 24, while fighting a house fire.

For Lieutenant Velasquez, the viewing will be held on Thursday, July 29 from 12:00 – 4:00 p.m. at Klein Auditorium located at 910 Fairfield Avenue in Bridgeport. Funeral services will be held Friday, July 30 at 10:00 a.m., at St. Augustine Cathedral, 359 Washington Avenue in Bridgeport.

For Fire fighter Baik, the viewing will be held on Thursday, July 29 from 4:00 – 8:00 p.m. at the Abriola Parkview Funeral Home located at 419 White Plains Road in Trumbull, Connecticut. Funeral services will be held on Friday, July 30 at 2:00 p.m. at St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church located at 5458 Park Avenue in Bridgeport.

IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger will deliver the eulogy during both services. “It is with a heavy heart that I extend condolences on behalf of the 298,000 members of the IAFF to the Velasquez and Baik families and to their fellow Bridgeport Local 834 fire fighters,” says General President Schaitberger. “By all accounts, both were excellent fire fighters. They will be missed.”

“Velasquez and Baik were two of our best,” says Local 834 President Robert Whitbread. “They were both dedicated to their duty, the kind any of us would be glad to work with on the scene of any emergency. While this is a difficult time for all Local 834 members, we are reaching out to the families to determine what we can do to help them in their time of need.”

The two Local 834 fire fighters were among those responding to Saturday’s house fire. Upon arrival, Velasquez and Baik went to the third floor of the home, a converted apartment, to ventilate and search for potential trapped victims.

It is speculated that the two ran out of air and sent a Mayday. They were found unconscious on the third floor and transported to local hospitals. Both were declared dead a short time later.

The Connecticut State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the incident. Office officials expect the

STAGING FOR FUNERAL Friday, July 30, 2010:

LODD – Bridgeport, Local 834

Steele Point (Stratford Ave. / Pembroke Ave.)  - I-95 s/b exit 28,

I-95 n/b exit 29.  ALL UNIFORM PERSONNEL are asked to park here and be bused to 1st Church, then 2nd Church, then Reception at Harbor Yard and will provide shuttles from Harbor Yard to Steel Point.  Bus starts shuttling to Church at 0700 hrs.

Members Arriving by Train - Shuttles will be provided to the Staging Area

For staging and shuttle bus information, please click here and here for hotel information.

IAFF Fire Fighters from around New England attended the IAFF's NEW ENGLAND CONFERENCE at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods on June 26-28. President Peter Carozza, Jr. and Mashantucket IAFF Local 4746 hosted the event. Check the Photo Gallery for additional photographs.

U.S. House of Representatives Gives Fire Fighters Collective Bargaining Rights

July 1, 2010 -- The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill to give collective bargaining rights to fire fighters and other public safety officers.

The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act assures that fire fighters in every state will have the right to talk to their employer about how to improve public safety and do their jobs more safely. The initiative was included in a supplemental appropriation bill adopted by a vote of 239-182.

“Seventy-five years after passage of the National Labor Relations Act, fire fighters are a step closer to having the same rights that workers in the private sector have had since 1935,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger.

While most fire fighters and law enforcement officers are already provided bargaining rights under state laws, too many public safety officers do not ve the ability to present ideas about how they can better protect the public safety. The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act will ensure that every state allows discussions between first responders and the agencies that employ them, and will promote productive partnerships between labor and management.

Collective bargaining is especially important in light of the fiscal crisis facing many localities. Over the past two years, fire fighters have offered millions of dollars in concessions and given back raises and benefits previously agreed to in order to prevent cuts that would undermine public safety.

The Senate will take up the measure following its July 4 recess.

Connecticut AFL-CIO's Health and Safety Committee dedicated a permanent Worker Memorial in a prominent location in Bushnell Park. 

New Residential Fire Study Shows Effects of Crew Size on Fire Fighting Operations April 28, 2010 -- A landmark study released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows that the size of fire fighting crews has a substantial effect on the fire service's ability to protect lives and property in residential fires. Click here to read the news release. Conducted by a broad coalition in the scientific, fire fighting and public safety communities, the study results found that four-person fire fighting crews were able to complete 22 essential fire fighting and rescue tasks in a typical residential structure 30 percent faster than two-person crews and 25 percent faster than three-person crews. The report is the first to quantify the effects of crew sizes and arrival times on the fire service's lifesaving and fire fighting operations. This and other scientific data in the report will help educate public officials, fire chiefs and other decision-makers on the importance of adequate staffing and deployment with respect to fire fighter and public safety. Study investigators from NIST and the IAFF announced the results of the study at a press conference at the Hilton Washington in Washington, DC, before the start of the annual Congressional Fire Services Institute meeting of top fire safety officials from the across the nation. Click here for the full report.   The study is funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters grant program.

What Does Health Care Reform Mean for Fire Fighters?

After decades of debate and months of back and forth in Congress, on March 23, President Obama signed historic health insurance reform legislation into law.

The big question now is, what does health care reform mean for fire fighters?

The IAFF has developed a health care reform fact sheet with important information about what the new health care reform law means for you and your family.

Click here to read the fact sheet.

SAVE THE DATE............ Sunday, October 17, 2010, 12:00 Noon - 8th Annual Ct. Firefighters Memorial Serivce - View Flyer 

June 11, 2009 – The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the global outbreak of the novel H1N1 influenza virus to be in Phase 6 -- a full-scale pandemic.

The announcement warns the World Health Organization's 194 member nations to expect the arrival of the new flu strain, which is likely to infect up to one-third of the population in the first wave and return in later waves over the next several years. Simultaneously, the World Health Organization is advising the world's makers of influenza vaccine to quickly prepare commercial-scale pandemic vaccine of this H1N1 virus.

The move to Phase 6, the highest level in the World Health Organization's graduated scale of pandemic alerts, has been expected for weeks and in the opinion of many experts is overdue. By definition, it means that the virus is showing "community-level transmission," which means it is being passed from person to person without an easily traceable chain of infection, in two or more regions of the world.

The IAFF has developed an online resource with guidance on the H1N1 virus to remind members to take the necessary precautions for responding safely and effectively during this outbreak.