Firefighters do yard work for vet

Milford firefighters assist injured vet with yard work Momday Milford firefighters assist injured vet with yard work Momday Photo: Lauren Abelli Via Facebook Photo: Lauren Abelli Via Facebook Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Firefighters do yard work for vet 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

MILFORD — Firefighters responding to a medical call on Memorial Day helped a veteran’s wife who’d broken her ankle, then completed the yard work the vet had been doing.

The incident first came to light through a Facebook post by a neighbor of the couple, Lauren Abelli, who included a photo of the firefighters at work in the yard.

She wrote that after her neighbor was given medical care and transported by ambulance the firefighters stayed to finish the yard work.

“Way to go, MFD. Well done,’’ Abelli wrote on her Facebook page. She did not identify her neighbor or post an address.

Battalion Chief Anthony Fabrizi, the department spokesman, said the three-man crew noticed that the woman’s husband was wearing a t-shirt and hat that denoted his military service. “The crew of Quint 3 rendered care to the female patient, who was transported to the hospital along with her spouse by her side,’’ Fabrizi wrote in a press release.

“Realizing that the yard work was incomplete, the firefighters completed the task before clearing the scene,’’ the department spokesman said.

The firefighters responded to the medical call at 11:54 a.m. Monday.

“We simply wanted to do something good for the veteran, so that he may return home to find the work complete, and focus the attention on his wife,” said Lt. A.J. Murphy, who commanded the scene.

Abelli’s Facebook post has been up less than a day and already has drawn 1,400 likes, 408 shares and 50 comments, many of them Milford residents recalling times when city firefighters and police went above and beyond their duties.

One woman recalled that when her mother fell and nearly bled to death several years ago on New Year’s Day, firefighters provided medical care, transported the patient, and then returned to help the woman clean up.