Fire causes chaos in downtown Shelton Shelton: Downtown blaze injures 5, causes water main break, snarls traffic

SHELTON -- A fire early Monday led to a building collapse, a water main break and massive excavations that threw the city's downtown into chaos as businesses were forced to close, traffic was detoured and dozens of residents were displaced.

Five people were taken to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.

"We're the walking wounded right now," Mayor Mark Lauretti said later in the day. "No one anticipates something like this. An event like this always creates a lot of uncertainty."

That feeling heightened long after the blaze, which destroyed the four-story structure at 434 Howe Ave., was out. Evening temperatures plummeted, freezing some of the thousands of gallons of water that flowed over nearby streets onto the Derby-Shelton bridge after being pumped throughout the day on smoldering debris.

Just beyond the edge of the bridge, a construction crew dug a hole allowing Aquarion repair workers to get to the broken water main and restore service to nearly 1,000 customers.

"As a result of that break, everyone near that area either has no water pressure or reduced pressure," said Peter Fazekas, an Aquarion spokesman. "Don't expect that to improve until fire-fighting efforts are over and the pressure is able to build back up again."

Meanwhile, Fire Marshal James Tortora said he and investigators from the state fire marshal's office would sift through the collapsed building's remains to determine the cause of the blaze, which is believed to have started in the basement.

Rubble off Howe Avenue after a massive fire destroyed businesses and apartments in downtown Shelton on Monday, Jan. 6, 2014. Rubble off Howe Avenue after a massive fire destroyed businesses and apartments in downtown Shelton on Monday, Jan. 6, 2014. Photo: Frank Juliano, Connecticut Post Photo: Frank Juliano, Connecticut Post Image 1 of / 96 Caption Close Fire causes chaos in downtown Shelton 1 / 96 Back to Gallery

"I'm hoping we can get in soon," Tortora said.

Water wasn't the only utility turned off near the fire. Those same 1,000 customers were without electricity, as United Illuminating worked to restore power by late Monday evening. Yankee Gas also cut off service to the site.

The blaze, which began shortly after midnight, caused the building's upper levels, which housed 27 families, to collapse atop street-level businesses like Howe Convenient, a florist and a barber shop. Smoke, water and debris damaged the adjoining Liquid Lunch and Joy Lee Chinese restaurants. The city's building inspector is expected to determine if those two restaurants must be demolished.

"My first concern is that the area be made safe," Lauretti said.

An excavator worked into the evening, pushing the downed building's remains into piles for removal in nearby dump trucks.

"It's a nightmare," said John Anglace, president of Shelton's Board of Aldermen. "There's all kinds of chaos downtown. It will probably be several days before things return to any sort of normalcy."

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., announced plans to tour the site at 11 a.m. Tuesday with Bernie Sweeney, director of the Connecticut Small Business Administration, and Lauretti.

Monday's blaze is the latest in a string of fires over four decades that ravaged downtown, taking away the Sponge Rubber Products Co. in 1975, destroying the Boys and Girls Club in 1991 and leaving a vacant lot where the Hunters Corner gun shop exploded in 1993.

The building that burned Monday was built in 1880. It stood adjacent to Viaduct Square, which houses a post office that was forced to close when it lost power during the fire. The post office is expected to reopen Tuesday.

The lack of power and water forced the Naugatuck Valley Health District to post notices on nearby restaurants that they could not reopen until inspection. These businesses included Dunkin' Donuts, Danny O's, Subway, Little Tomato, Amici's and Stockbridge. Inspections of those businesses are expected to take place Tuesday, according to David Rogers, the NVHD's assistant director.

The downtown always bounces back, Lauretti said. A public park and river walk replaced a portion of the Sponge Rubber site and a bigger and better Boys and Girls Club was built.

"When one door closes, another opens," the mayor said. "Hopefully, this is seen as a good investment opportunity and an opportunity for economic growth."

Anglace, Lauretti and others were thankful no one was hurt seriously. Hours earlier, the city's volunteer firefighters and rescue workers pulled several people out of the flaming building and plucked others from the upper floors with tower ladders. A state police search and rescue team was at the site, as were troopers from the fire and explosion unit. But there were no reports of missing people.

Several pets, however, were believed to have died in the fire.

One tenant, who gave his name only as Joe, said he heard a woman screaming that her cats were still inside.

"The smoke was so heavy, I had to get really low to the ground to get out. I was gagging," he said.

Tenants said working smoke detectors, neighbors helping neighbors and the work of firefighters saved lives.

Gerard Murphy said he made it out of his burning apartment because the building's alarms woke him up.

"It was bad in there," he said. "I couldn't see anything in the hallway," Murphy said.

Kenny Wells, another resident, doesn't want to think what his fate might have been had a neighbor not banged on his door yelling "fire, get out!"

"The smoke was so thick I couldn't even see him when I opened the door," he said.

When firefighters arrived shortly after midnight, they encountered a raging fire with thick smoke.

"It was not a good feeling at all when we got here," Assistant Fire Chief Nick Verdicchio said. "We had heavy fire showing from the back of the building. It started to come out the front, so we just did a full-court press trying to get these people out of here, and within a half-hour ... the building collapsed upon itself."

Calls went out for additional help and firefighters from Ansonia, Derby, Seymour, Fairfield, Monroe, Stratford, Milford and Woodbridge responded. Several times, crews were forced to withdraw when portions of the building collapsed.

"One of the obstacles we had was water supply," Verdicchio said. "We had a couple of nearby hydrants that were frozen. We had no water. So we had to scramble to find a water supply."

The Connecticut Red Cross and Team Inc. worked Monday to find temporary and permanent housing in the Naugatuck Valley for those displaced by the fire.

"We need landlords with one- or two-bedroom apartments to contact us," said Diane Stroman, a vice president at Team Inc., which is in downtown Derby.

Residents like Jean Wilkinson said she "lost everything in the fire ... I couldn't even get back in to get my pocketbook or my medicines. All I got is what you see," she said referring to the clothes on her back.

John Burgeson and Digital Editor Jim Shay contributed to this story.