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Fire marshal warns inspections will strain staff as Newington prepares for roughly 1,100 new units
Summary
Fire Marshal DJ Zordon told the Town Council July 9 that his three-person office has raised inspection compliance to about 80% but will face a substantial workload as several planned housing projects add roughly 1,100 dwelling units; he urged more staffing and collaboration with landlords and Human Services.
DJ Zordon, Newington’s fire marshal, told the Town Council on July 9 that his office has shifted toward a customer-service approach while enforcing the state fire code, investigating fires and permitting fireworks and blasting. “We are trying to be customer service oriented,” Zordon said, adding the office still must ensure safety and compliance even when it costs businesses money.
Zordon described the office’s core duties—origin-and-cause fire investigations, code enforcement and plan reviews—and said investigators focus on origin and cause while law enforcement handles criminal allegations. He gave examples of routine and complaint-driven inspections, and said means-of-egress is a priority after finding problems such as blocked stairways or unusable exits.
The fire marshal presented recent workload figures: about 1,235 inspected properties, 59 of them classified as apartment properties representing roughly 1,800 dwelling units; inspectors have achieved an overall inspection completion rate near 80 percent, up from an estimated 54 percent in 2020. “We will never be 100% just based on the way the calendar works,” Zordon said, but he said the office’s operational goal is to approach 90 percent compliance.
Zordon said his staff includes three full-time employees—himself, Assistant Fire Marshal John Hoffman and operations coordinator Karen Galo—two 20-hour deputy positions (one vacant) and per-diem inspectors. He showed a four-to-five-year budget range of about $220,000–$300,000 per year, with roughly 93% for salaries and 7% for operations.
Councillors asked how the department would manage a wave of new housing. Zordon listed several projects now in the pipeline—the Cedar Point development, a WoodSpring Suites hotel, Pike Apartments, Millard Apartments (three buildings), a redevelopment at the Old National Welding site and a Culver Street project—that together he estimated would add about 1,100 dwelling units to the town’s inspection responsibilities. “It’s really going to be a manpower issue,” he told the council, noting the difficulty of scheduling and entering individual dwelling units for inspections.
On training and certification, Zordon said staff come from the fire service, complete state testing and must maintain continuing education (90 hours every three years for those who are both investigators and code enforcers in Connecticut). He recommended routine tenant verification of smoke detectors as part of a state-level proposal to make tenant self-certification an acceptable first step for scheduling.
Councilors and the fire marshal also discussed community outreach topics, including common household fire risks—cooking, obstructed equipment and improper smoking-material disposal—and collaboration with Human Services on hoarding and safe-housing cases. Zordon described the Safe Homes task force and said the fire marshal’s office coordinates with police, Human Services, the animal control officer and zoning to remediate dangerous living conditions.
Next steps: Zordon urged the council and town staff to consider additional staffing or funding options as the inspector workload grows with planned development. He said his office will continue scheduling and pursuing a mix of annual and multi-year inspections tied to occupancy classifications dictated by the state fire marshal’s office.
