At 8:55 pm on Thursday 2/13/25 the Stamford 911 Center recieved a call reporting heavy smoke in the area of 87 Wardwell St. in the Shippan area of Stamford.  SFD Engine 4 arrived approximately 3 minutes later and found heavy smoke that seemed to be originating from a block north.  Other responding units from Central Fire Headquarters diverted to Halloween Blvd and found an auto body shop with heavy smoke pushing out from the roofline and fire visible through the windows on the corner of Halloween Blvd and St. Mary's Street.  As a structure fire was declared, first arriving fire crews had to cut through fencing surrounding the building in order to gain access to the property and then had to cut through metal garage doors to get into the building to begin firefighting efforts.  As crews advanced into the heavily congested body shop and began extinguishment efforts the well developed fire began to burn through the roof and a 2nd alarm was struck bringing additional units to the scene.  A portion of the roof began to collapse and the Incident Commander ordered all crews to withdraw from the building and the firefighting strategy transitioned to a defensive attack mode.  Two tower ladder master streams and three portable master streams were used to contain and eventually extinguish the fire.  The fire was brought under control after approximately 2 hours with final extinguishment taking about 1 more hour.  The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Stamford Fire Marshal's office and the State of Connecticut Fire Marshal's office and fire crews are remaining on the scene overnight to assist the fire marshals and to ensure that there are no reignitions of fire particularly in the areas where the roof collapsed.  The 2 Alarm SFD response included 6 Engine Companies, 2 Tower Ladder Companies, 1 Rescue Company, 2 Command units and 2 Safety Officers as well as Staff Chief's, Fire Marshal's, and the SFD Mechanical Division for a total of approximately 50 firefighters at the scene.  2 Stamford EMS medic units and a SEMS supervisor were also on scene to support the SFD as were members of the Stamford Police Department.  No civilian or fire department injuries were reported.  Members of the Stamford volunteer fire departments provided coverage of their own districts as well as the downtown SFD district during the fire.

Incident Details (if applicable):

Incident Number: 25-01628
Incident Location: 21 St. Marys Street
Incident Date: 2025-02-13 20:55:00.0

CONTACT INFO:

Deputy Fire Chief John Pritchard
(203) 977-5600

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