By Kalleen Rose Ozanic
The Hour
NORWALK, Conn. — The city’s fire department has won a Connecticut -wide award for risk management for limiting injuries and associated costs.
Norwalk garnered the Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency’s 2025 Risk Management Award in the Substantial Impact on Total Cost of Risk category, according to a statement from the city.
The award is based on efforts that include having a “substantial impact” on total cost of risk, establishing risk management as an organizational priority, new and innovative risk management initiatives and sustainable risk management programs, the statement said.
Since 2019, the city’s fire department has taken large strides in reducing workers’ compensation costs, bringing them down by 27% annually, the statement said.
From the period between 2019-20 to 2023-24, the Norwalk Fire Department reduced workers’ compensation claim severity from $919,000 to $255,000, the statement said.
“The Norwalk Fire Department was recognized for its commitment to firefighter health and safety through the Department’s Injury Prevention and Wellness Program,” the statement said. “This program promotes firefighter fitness, mobility training, nutrition and mental wellness among Norwalk’s firefighters. The Department partnered with CIRMA’s health and wellness committee, invested in advanced PPE and conducted specialized wellness training to help with the demanding nature of the job.”
“Our Injury Prevention and Wellness Program was started years ago and continues to be instrumental in reducing our firefighter injuries,” Fire Chief Gino Gatto said in the statement. “More and more firefighters are participating in the fitness programs. I want to thank our Deputy Chief of Training and Safety, Joseph Coppola, for his efforts and success reducing our workforce injuries and prioritizing the safety and wellbeing of our firefighters.”
Coppola said in the statement that providing the program is aligned with good practices.
“Providing our members with such a helpful and healthful program is simply the right thing to do,” Coppola said in the statement. “Our program would not enjoy the success it does without the unwavering support we get from our Chief, Gino Gatto, and our City Risk Manager, Craig Schmidt .”
The Norwalk Fire Department’s deft response was on regional display in 2024 when its firefighters, and others from neighboring mutual aid, extinguished the massive blaze under the Fairfield Avenue bridge spanning Interstate 95 in May.
Coppola said there were two injuries that day. A firefighter tripped over a hose line and sustained an injury that required surgery, returning to work early this month. A second firefighter sustained a minor elbow injury that didn’t result in any lost work time, Coppola said.
“Considering the magnitude of the incident and the long duration of it, we are fortunate to only have suffered these two workplace injuries,” Coppola said in an email Thursday.
The bridge was rebuilt in record time, reopening for public use seven months to the day after the fire consumed it.
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