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The early morning Norwalk apartment fire was a police officer's worst nightmare. Officer Christopher Sgritta was driving by 45 Wall St. Friday when he saw flames and smoke coming from the building and two children looking out a second floor window. Heavy smoke blocked him from entering the front door.
"I yelled for the children to wake their parents and make their way down the stairs," the officer said. They were able to get out the front door "just a minute later," said Sgritta, who has been a member of the Norwalk Police Department for less than a year.
Sgritta said he heard cries for help from the back of the building, where he found two people who apparently had jumped from a second floor ledge onto the Metro North tracks. The two were taken to Norwalk Hospital with broken bones.
In all, eight people were forced out of the building by the blaze, and service was disrupted on Metro North's Danbury branch line. Two Norwalk firefighters were hospitalized with heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation, a department spokesman said.
Firefighters from Norwalk battled the flames, according to published reports, while Stamford, Westport, Wilton and Fairfield provided backup support for the Norwalk Fire Department.
Norwalk Fire Department spokeswoman Michele DeLuca said Norwalk firefighters were still on the scene at 1:20. "The bulk of the fire is out, but there are still some hot spots they [firefighters] are finding," she said.
As for the cause of the fire, Chris Hansen, lead investigator, said, "There are so many different avenues. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. But we're going to pick through every piece and leave no fact unturned."
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