Eleven Westport Firefighters donated their time Friday so the Bridgeport Firefighters could attend the funerals of Lt. Steven Velasquez and firefighter Michel Baik who died fighting a house fire last Saturday. 

Firefighters mustered at 5 a.m. at the Westport Fire Headquarters and then traveled to the Fairfield Regional Fire School for a 5:30 a.m. debriefing with all the covering Fire Departments.

Mutual-aid units were given assignments and rolled into the Bridgeport Fire stations for the 7 a.m. shift change.  Westport Engine 2 was assigned to Co 16 on Madison Avenue and became Bridgeport Engine 16.  Westport Rescue 3 was assigned to the Hartford Area Task Force 56, which was brought in to provide extra coverage in case any major incidents occurred in the area.

 The Task Force consisted of an Engine and Ladder from Hartford, Engine from East Hartford, Rescue from Westport, Deputy Chief from Hartford as well as their mobile Machine Shop to perform repairs (which they did). 

Ironically the Task Force was deployed to Fairfield to cover a basement fire and the Westport Rescue ended up in Fairfield with another mutual-aid Westport Engine responding in from Westport.  Lt. Mike Kronick was in Bridgeport's Emergency Operations Center and heavily involved in the planning since Monday.  Lt. Lupo and Westport Assistant Fire Chief Andrew Kingsbury were assigned to Battalion 1, which covers the West Side of Bridgeport.  Westport Fire Chief Christopher Ackley, Deputy Chief Jonathan Gottfried and a contingent represented Westport at the funerals.  

It was a somewhat busy day but luckily no major incidents occurred, Kingsbury said.

The last Westport units cleared Bridgeport around 8  p.m. Friday.  It should be noted that almost all the covering Firefighters donated their time.  Those that were on overtime pledged to donate their pay to the family funds.  Lt. Lupo and Kingsbury were able to catch both funeral processions to pay respects.

"It was a sad day," Kingsbury said.