CONTRIBUTED Kevin Gilbert on the ladder moments before the accident in 1995.
As the hose came loose from the firetruck, it swung violently — knocking firefighter Kevin Gilbert off his ladder and launching him into the air.
Gilbert plummeted, hitting a group of power lines before landing on pavement 45 feet below.
It was June 16, 1995.
Seventeen years later, sitting in his Ansonia living room, Gilbert, 42, flips through a binder of newspaper clippings from the accident and said he’s stunned to think more than a decade has gone by since that fateful fall.
It’s been a long journey for Gilbert — from paralysis to self sufficiency.
When he found out he might never walk again, he learned how to stand on leg braces, went out and reapplied for a driver’s license, went back to work as soon as he could, started his own trucking business and eventually became a dispatcher for the Ansonia Police Department.
The story has inspired many — including his daughter, Megan, who was 1 when the accident happened.
Now 17, Megan recently gave a speech in her religion class at Sacred Heart Academy about her father’s story. The assignment was to talk about someone who had a big impact on their lives. She couldn’t think of any hero greater than her dad, Megan said.
The Gilbert family recent sat down with the Valley Indy to talk about Kevin’s recovery — and his new role back in the public safety sector.
The Accident
“It was the worst day of my life,” said Bernadine Gilbert, Kevin’s wife.
Kevin retells the story matter-of-factly. He doesn’t remember anything about the accident, so he explains what people told him over the years.
Kevin said he felt tired, but got out of bed at 2 a.m. when a call reporting a structure fire came in. It was June 16, 1995.
He was a volunteer firefighter for Eagle Hose & Hook & Ladder Co. 6 in Ansonia while working at at Seymour Oil Company. At 26 years old, he and Bernadine had been married for three years. They were a young loving family with their 1‑year-old daughter, Megan.
CONTRIBUTED Kevin Gilbert on the ladder right before the fall.
The Gilberts describe it as senseless.
“That’s what’s most frustrating, is that, there’s no reason,” Megan said. “It’s not like it was an electrical fire, or they rescued somebody. No, it was just a vacant tenant house burning. It could have been avoided.”
Yet, fighting the fire felt routine, Kevin said.
Kevin was up on the ladder operating an aerial hose when his oxygen began to run out. He unclipped his safety belt from the ladder and began to climb down as another firefighter clipped on to the ladder to relieve him.
Then that the aerial hose broke loose from the truck. The wild, surging hose knocked Kevin off the ladder and into the air.
“It peeled me off like a banana peel,” he said. “There’s just no way you’re going to hold on.”
He plummeted head first.
He might have continued that way, except his body hit a group of utility lines, which sent him into a flat spin. Those utility lines probably saved his life.
His back hit the pavement. The firefighter who relieved Kevin dangled 45 feet above him on the ladder, held by the belt at his waist.
Lyman Gilbert, Kevin’s father, also volunteered and drove one of the fire engines that day. He looked up to realize his son fell more than four stories.
Back at Kevin’s house, Bernadine woke up. Something felt wrong, she said.
She called her mother-in-law to come watch Megan and went down to the scene. Kevin was conscious, but in shock. Bernadine jumped in the ambulance and they rushed to Yale-New Haven Hospital.
‘I Felt Like I Couldn’t Do Anything On My Own’
Register Photo. Kevin, his wife Bernadine, and their daughter, Megan, pose in this 1995 New Haven Register photograph.
“When he woke up, he was just beside himself,” Bernadine said.
Kevin said he ripped the breathing tube out of his throat.
Kevin spent about two weeks at Yale before he transferred to Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford for rehab. If he was going to learn to walk again, it would be here.
“If it was possible, if there was anything he could do to walk again, he was going to do it,” Bernadine said.
Kevin described rehab as “horrendous.” A hairline fracture in his pelvis made sitting up excruciating. His shattered elbow and hand kept him from making quick progress.
“I couldn’t push a wheelchair,” he said. “I felt like I couldn’t do anything on my own.”
He learned how to stand again using leg braces, but after two and a half months, he learned everything he felt he could.
“I signed out,” Kevin said. “It was time to go. Sometimes you just get that feeling and you’ve got to go.”
A Turning Point
Valley fire departments and police departments, friends, family and even strangers rallied around the Gilberts throughout the ordeal. The community held a number of fundraisers, helping the family pay for things like handicap-accessible ramps.
Yet eventually Kevin found himself at home, restless in his wheelchair.
“I think you could really easily just sit there and get wrapped up watching TV,” he said.
But Gilbert didn’t want to do that.
His first move? He bought a truck with hand controls and went back to get his driver’s license.
PHOTO: Caitlin Emma Kevin Gilbert, center, poses with his wife, his son Spencer and his daughter Megan, at their Ansonia home.
Kevin started working for a land clearing company, operating a wood chipper. Working gave him a new sense of purpose, he said.
“I was just go, go, go,” Kevin said.
Then one day, he came across a newspaper article about a handicapped Guilford man who operated a hand-controlled dump truck.
“I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I called him up,” Kevin said.
Kevin went to Guilford to meet the man and check out his truck. The experience helped him realize that he could do almost anything he wanted, he said.
So he went for his commercial driving license and bought a dump truck and an excavating truck. He started K. Gilbert Trucking in 2001, helping people clear land and dig holes for houses. It was perfect, until the housing bubble burst in 2009 and customers stopped calling.
“I call it luck that we sold off what we owed and we just kept what we owned,” he said. “I don’t think that I’m a business-analyst-type guy. We just got lucky. We just saw something before it got bad.”
A Love For Public Safety
Gilbert used to spend time at the firehouse after the accident, but it started to get to him that he wasn’t able to respond to calls.
“If I could get back into firefighting, I would, but I just can’t,” he said.
So Gilbert stopped going.
“I veered away,” Kevin said. “But I’ve always loved public safety.”
After a few filler jobs, Kevin saw an opportunity to get back into something he loved.
The Ansonia Police Department needed a dispatcher and Kevin was their guy. He took the job in fall 2010 and now works weekends.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Kevin Gilbert, left, with fellow Ansonia Police dispatcher Dave Blackwell, at the station.
Gilbert picks up extra shifts whenever the department needs him.
“I don’t remember the last time he got a call (to come in) and didn’t take it,” said Megan, who’s now a senior at Sacred Heart Academy.
She’s looking at nursing school, after everything her dad has been through, she said.
The Valley community supported the Gilberts after the accident, Kevin said working as a dispatcher makes him feel like he’s giving back.
He said the accident helped him learn to spend the most time possible with his wife and two kids. Kevin also has a son, Spencer, who was born three years after the accident in 1998.
“I think it’s definitely brought us closer, because you never know how quickly life can change,” Bernadine said.
