Derby Firefighters Praised For Quick Response

A fire that burned a downtown Derby building Friday (March 22) sent a local couple to the hospital — but wasn’t worse thanks to first responders quick to the scene.

A trio firefighters — father and son Mike Tracz Sr. and Mike Tracz Jr. and Brian Mezzapelle — and an auxiliary policeman were quick to the scene after the fire broke out, the New Haven Register reported Monday.

Tracz Sr. kicked in the door to get to the disabled man, identified as Edward Minerly, and then helped him out of the apartment before others arrived to help carry him down an exterior staircase at the building.

Minerly’s wife had been at a store across the street when the fire broke out, and was alerted by an employee of a nearby salon.

The Register quoted Minerly Monday as saying emergency personnel did a fantastic job.”

The couple made living arrangements after the fire through the Red Cross.

But their escape did not mean the frantic efforts of firefighters stopped.

On the way here we got a report that occupants were trapped,” Fire Chief Thomas Lenart Jr. said at the scene. That always makes things more difficult — you’re not sure who called it in, who got out before we got here. So we had to do good searches on the second floor.”

No one else was hurt — and thanks to the quick response, the blaze didn’t spread to any neighboring buildings.

Imperial Liquors, a store on the first floor of the building, did suffer some water damage, owner Dean Odice said Monday, but was open by Sunday after he replaced some ceiling tiles.

Thank God they were able to knock the fire down quick,” Odice said of emergency crews.

Fire Marshal Phil Hawks knows where the fire started — in a vacant front apartment on the building’s second floor — but as of Monday had not determined how.

It’s still under investigation at this point in time,” Hawks said.

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