Crime & Safety

Firefighters to Train at Southport Home Set for Demo

Fairfield and Westport firefighters are teaming up for specialized training.

If you see flames coming from a house on Westway Road in Southport, or a bunch of firefighters in the area, it's only a drill.

The training exercise will take place now through March 27, at 18 Westway Road, near Southport Harbor. It's being conducted as an expansion of a mutual aid agreement between Fairfield  and Westport fire departments.

In particular, firefighters will be working on using a Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) at the scene of fires.

Find out what's happening in Westportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A RIT is a group of firefighters assigned to providing assistance to firefighters should they become injured, lost, disoriented, trapped, or suffer a medical emergency while fighting a fire. The RIT crew assembles specialized rescue tools and spare breathing air should the need arise and they become “activated.” 

Westport responded with an RIT team to the fatal fire earlier this month on Crane Street in Fairfield.

Find out what's happening in Westportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Few towns have the available resources to provide this requirement so they are entering into agreements to provide this on a mutual aid basis, according to a press release from the Westport Fire Department. 

The Westport Fire Department already has in place an agreement with Wilton Fire Department for the northwest corner of town and is working on an agreement with Norwalk Fire Department for the remainder of the town.  


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