Yantic Fire Engine Company #1

06/01/2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 1, 2026

Statement from the Yantic, Laurel Hill, Occum, and Taftville Fire Department Chiefs on Current Status of Operations

NORWICH, Conn. – While the City of Norwich ultimately chose not to close the Occum, Taftville, and Laurel Hill volunteer fire departments last week for not signing the Consolidated Command agreement by the deadline, the fact remains that Yantic has been shut down for almost four months at the unnecessary cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to Norwich taxpayers.

Additionally, the actions to date by certain Democratic City Councilors, City Manager Salomone, Fire Chief Wilson, and the leadership of Norwich Firefighters Local 892 have unnecessarily created a hostile work environment for our volunteers.

The community has spoken loudly on the issue and does not want what is being proposed. Yet, these City of Norwich leaders continue their disinformation campaign against volunteers, claiming “systemic safety gaps” without presenting all the facts.

Over a year ago, volunteer leadership wrote to City Manager Salomone about the MDT/CAD dispatch system issues, and he never responded. We raised our concerns during the monthly Public Safety meetings, and there was no movement. And then, in January of this year, even Chief Wilson acknowledged the issues during the “Norwich Fire Service” meeting, but there has still been no working together to find a solution.

Meanwhile, other senior Norwich Fire Department officials have recently acknowledged to volunteer leadership that some of the response issues cited publicly to date by the city and the union regarding volunteers are directly linked to notification delays from MDT/CAD dispatch system failures.

It is also concerning that there has been no accountability for the silence and inaction by the Mayor and other Democratic members of the City Council. We elect leaders to lead during times like these and work collaboratively with all parties to find a solution—not let a few individuals push their agenda without asking any questions or seeing what the other side has to say on the issue.

Let’s be clear: the closure of Yantic and the push to close Occum, Taftville, and Laurel Hill is being driven by these specific City of Norwich officials, not the volunteers. The city has neither brought nor been willing to discuss any meaningful change to its proposed contract during previous mediation attempts, nor has it been willing to put Yantic back in service while negotiations are taking place. Some of the incidents cited by the city would have been mitigated if Yantic had been in service.

If the City of Norwich leaders pushing for Consolidated Command are so confident they have the public's best interests in mind, then why not put it to a vote and let Norwich’s taxpayers decide?

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05/27/2026

Thank you to all the community members who organized today in support of our volunteer fire departments in Norwich, it means the world to us! Just a reminder: what the City is actually looking for by definition is "Consolidated Command" not "Unified Command," which already exists. Please continue to write to your elected officials at City Hall and to state legislators, and let them know how you feel about the City's actions to date!

05/25/2026

05/24/2026

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Boston Fire Department and the family of the firefighter killed in the line of duty last evening in Dorchester.

05/20/2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Laurel Hill, Occum, Taftville, and Yantic Volunteer Fire Departments Set the Record Straight

Volunteer Departments Outline City of Norwich Misrepresentations & Failures To-Date

NORWICH, Conn. (May 20, 2026) – The recent public statements issued by the City of Norwich, City administration, including City Manager Salomone and Fire Chief Wilson, Norwich Firefighters Local 892 leadership, and certain elected officials continue to present an incomplete, misleading, and operationally inaccurate narrative regarding the volunteer fire service system in Norwich.

The volunteer fire departments of Laurel Hill, Occum, Taftville, and Yantic remain committed to protecting the residents of Norwich and continue to support coordinated emergency response operations, mutual aid interoperability, and compliance with established National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS) principles.

The central legal issue currently before the court is not whether emergency services should cooperate. The issue is whether the City can unilaterally restructure the governance, operational authority, and long-standing autonomy of independent volunteer fire departments outside the process required by the Norwich City Charter and without lawful approval through the legislative and judicial processes established for those changes.

The City continues to publicly characterize this dispute as simple “Unified Command” compliance while omitting the broader structural and governance changes being imposed through executive action rather than through ordinance, charter revision, or voter approval. What the City wants by definition is “Consolidated Command,” not “Unified Command.”

The volunteer departments strongly dispute the City’s characterization of recent incidents as evidence of systemic failure in the volunteer fire service.

The City’s public statements repeatedly omit critical operational facts, including:
• longstanding CAD and MDT deficiencies,
• dispatch limitations,
• communications infrastructure problems,
• alerting failures,
• unilateral run card modifications,
• mutual aid restructuring,
• and operational changes implemented without meaningful coordination with volunteer leadership.

These issues have been repeatedly raised with City leadership for months, and in some cases, years.

Recent public claims regarding the April 12 fatal accident in the Occum district are one example.

The City publicly claimed that only one volunteer responded in a personal vehicle, delaying the staffed apparatus. The actual incident documentation reflects multiple responding Occum units and personnel, establishment of incident command within minutes, CPR initiation, mutual aid coordination, EMS operations, and patient care activities throughout the incident.

The City’s public narrative does not accurately reflect the documented operational response.

The City also continues to assert that its restructuring efforts are intended to ensure that “the closest and most capable resources are dispatched automatically.” However, operational realities increasingly demonstrate the opposite.

Run cards within the CCD system have already been modified to reduce or delay volunteer company participation in portions of structure fire responses, while increasing reliance on paid city staffing and outside mutual aid agencies.

In some instances, outside departments such as the Submarine Base Fire Department and the Poquonnock Bridge Fire Department are being dispatched toward Norwich incidents before volunteer companies located within Norwich itself are dispatched.

Approximate travel times from those agencies to portions of Norwich are approximately:
• 23 minutes from Submarine Base Fire Department
• 25 minutes from Poquonnock Bridge Fire Department

At the same time, neighborhood-based Norwich volunteers, who can respond much faster locally, are being moved deeper into alarm assignments or bypassed entirely.

Additional operational examples continue to raise concern.

On a recent medical call:
• At 1731, Engine 3 was released from Beechwood Drive and dispatched to Laurel Hill Avenue.
• At 1731, Squad 66 advised dispatch they had a staffed crew available.
• Dispatch advised that Engine 3 was already responding.
• At 1732, Engine 2 requested Engine 3’s location and was advised they were still on Otrobando Avenue.
• Engine 2 then advised they would handle the call and requested Squad 66 be added.

If the City’s actions were truly driven solely by public safety interests, the available neighborhood-based volunteer resource would have been assigned immediately. Instead, the available volunteer unit was bypassed while a more distant city apparatus continued responding across town.

These operational changes themselves create increased public safety risk.

Neighborhood-based volunteer stations place apparatus and personnel directly within the districts they protect. Suspending volunteer companies, removing apparatus from service, redistributing apparatus, centralizing staffing, and increasing reliance on cross-city responses and outside mutual aid agencies will inevitably increase travel times and delay emergency intervention.

Those delays directly affect:
• fire attack,
• rescue operations,
• EMS intervention,
• civilian survivability,
• firefighter safety,
• and property conservation.

The City has also failed to publicly acknowledge operational incidents involving the modified response model itself, including incidents such as Otis Street, while simultaneously highlighting isolated volunteer incidents to support a narrative of systemic volunteer failure.

The volunteer departments also reject repeated attempts to characterize volunteers as unqualified or incapable of emergency response.

Volunteer firefighters throughout Norwich include experienced Firefighter I personnel, EMTs, officers, instructors, and responders with decades of operational experience. Like volunteer systems nationwide, staffing challenges exist. However, staffing challenges do not justify bypassing the City Charter, dismantling long-standing neighborhood-based emergency response systems, or centralizing operational control through executive action.

Additionally, it is deeply concerning that many members of the Norwich City Council majority have publicly adopted and repeated the City administration’s narrative regarding the volunteer fire departments without first conducting balanced, independent fact-finding with all parties involved.

To date, volunteer fire chiefs have repeatedly raised concerns about operational changes, dispatch modifications, CAD deficiencies, infrastructure problems, alerting failures, mutual aid restructuring, and impacts on the response model. Despite the seriousness of those concerns and the significant consequences these proposed actions may have on public safety, many elected officials have failed to personally meet with volunteer fire chiefs to fully understand the operational realities occurring within the system.

Instead, public comments and published opinions have largely reflected information provided by City administration, union leadership, and City public relations releases while minimizing or disregarding the operational concerns raised by the volunteer departments themselves.

The residents of Norwich deserve elected officials who objectively evaluate all sides of an issue, particularly when the issue involves emergency response, public safety infrastructure, taxpayer impact, and potential restructuring of a fire service system that has protected Norwich neighborhoods for generations.

This is not simply a political disagreement. The decisions being discussed will directly impact emergency response times, fire suppression capability, EMS delivery, rescue operations, staffing deployment, and the overall safety of Norwich residents and firefighters.

The volunteer departments believe that meaningful public discussion requires:
• direct engagement with all fire chiefs,
• transparent operational data review,
• open evaluation of response model changes,
• analysis of dispatch and CAD issues,
• examination of mutual aid restructuring impacts,
• and honest discussion regarding the long-term financial and operational consequences of replacing neighborhood-based volunteer coverage with expanded paid staffing models.

The volunteer departments remain committed to:
• continued lawful emergency operations,
• continued mutual aid cooperation,
• continued NIMS and ICS compliance,
• continued protection of Norwich residents,
• preservation of public safety,
• and resolution of the underlying governance dispute through the judicial process currently underway.

The residents of Norwich deserve a transparent discussion focused on facts, operational realities, response outcomes, fiscal impact, and adherence to the City Charter, rather than on selective public narratives centered on isolated incidents and political rhetoric.

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05/12/2026

The City of Norwich, CT City Councilor Joe DeLucia arrogantly implied at the last City Council meeting that the Chiefs of all the surrounding departments that support us didn't actually write these letters and that all they did was sign their names--even though many of the Chiefs sent these same letters in directly to City Hall many weeks earlier and didn't get a response or acknowledgement (look at the dates on the letters; we simply compiled them and went through the City Clerk to make sure the entire City Council and the City Manager actually had them in hand). What do you say, Mohegan Fire Company, Inc., Baltic Fire Engine Co. #1, Jewett City Fire Department, Oakdale Fire Department, Inc, Lisbon Fire Department - CT, Chesterfield Fire Co. PIO, Franklin Volunteer Fire Department, Gardner Lake Volunteer Fire Company, Voluntown Volunteer Fire Co. No. 1?

05/06/2026

Our condolences is go out to Massachusetts State Police and the family of the fallen trooper.

05/06/2026

Statement from Yantic, Taftville, Occum, and Laurel Hill Volunteer Fire Department Chiefs regarding recent Norwich Fire Fighters Local 892/Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut Press Release:

After reading Norwich Fire Fighters Local 892 and the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of CT’s recent press release—now the second one this joint group has issued together—we must ask the question: Why are they getting involved at all?

As mentioned in our Monday statement on mediation, it has become increasingly clear in recent weeks that this is part of a broader, self-serving effort by both groups to discredit the volunteer fire service in Norwich to advance their agenda, along with certain City Councilors—who also happen to receive campaign contributions from PACs funded by these groups—City Manager Salomone, and Chief Wilson.

It should also be noted that Local 892 members are earning significant overtime covering Yantic’s district, at the expense of the Norwich taxpayer. At the same time, most Local 892 members do not live or pay taxes in the City of Norwich, but rather, enjoy the lower costs of neighboring communities that rely on volunteers.

We could go tit-for-tat identifying issues with the City’s department—in fact, an independent third party study conducted in 2020 and presented in 2021 identified several and was conveniently ignored by certain members of City Council, City Manager Salomone, and Chief Wilson after it was released—but our focus remains on the City’s illegal closure of Yantic and the legality of City Manager Salomone and Chief Wilson’s Consolidated Command policy.

It is unfortunate that politics have gotten in the way of an issue that is between the four volunteer fire companies and the City of Norwich—not Norwich Firefighters Union Local 892 and the Uniformed Professional Firefighters Association of Connecticut. It has unnecessarily created a hostile work environment, and at a time when communities across the country are promoting volunteerism, it is unfathomable that the current City of Norwich leaders continue to negate, devalue, and not recognize the huge financial benefits to Norwich taxpayers that the volunteer system provides.

05/04/2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2026

Statement from Norwich Volunteer Fire Department Chiefs on Unsuccessful Mediation with the City of Norwich:

"As we approach three months since Yantic’s unlawful closure—costing Norwich taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars—the Yantic, Taftville, Occum, and Laurel Hill volunteer fire department legal counsel today notified Judge Shapiro to suspend mediation with the City of Norwich, City Manager Salomone, and Fire Chief Wilson and move to the judiciary track for a more timely and conclusive resolution.

After multiple attempts at mediation, the Yantic, Taftville, Occum, and Laurel Hill volunteer departments believe insufficient progress has been made on the initial draft contract for future operations with the Norwich Fire Department.

What City Manager Salomone and Chief Wilson want is Consolidated Command, not Unified Command. Since Yantic’s closure, they—along with the Norwich Firefighters Local 892—continue to publicly discredit the city’s volunteer fire service while fabricating a public safety issue that does not exist under the current system.

Furthermore, Chief Wilson’s changes to the City’s Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system and to the volunteer department run cards, made without any consultation with the five volunteer fire departments that serve Norwich, speak volumes. The system now automatically sends a paid City of Norwich unit(s) and a Battalion Chief to the vast majority of emergency incidents in the city’s Town Consolidated District (TCD), which the volunteer departments historically service.

This unnecessary system change makes the volunteer departments redundant in their own service territories, at the expense of Norwich taxpayers. It is a policy that Norwich voters also soundly rejected by a nearly 4-to-1 margin in February of 2023, when Ordinance #1832 was repealed. City officials are imposing it on taxpayers regardless, disregarding the will of the people.

It is clear what the endgame is for certain members of the City Council, City Manager Salamone, Chief Wilson, and Local 892—to replace volunteer fire service with an entirely paid, unionized career department in Norwich at the cost of millions of dollars in new expenditures to accomplish their agenda.

The volunteer fire departments cannot operate in the capacity put forward by the City, and the main issue now is whether the City Manager and Fire Chief have the legal authority to bypass the City Charter and the will of Norwich voters by imposing sweeping structural changes through executive order rather than through the process required by law.

Discussions about restructuring the fire service were conducted largely behind closed doors, including the initial decision made by City Council in executive session to send Yantic after business hours a contract to sign by 10 a.m. the next day, without any time to consult its membership, or else be shut down.

Since Day 1, we have sought a lawful, sustainable path forward that preserves local coverage, maintains depth, protects public safety and taxpayers, and allows the Norwich community to make the ultimate decision.

We look forward to making our case in court."

05/02/2026

Chicken BBQ starts today at 4:30pm for those that have purchased tickets. Service will be drive-up style.