Fire erupts at National Hall; multiple departments respond
Photo Courtesy of the Westport Fire Department
Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze, which originated under the roof’s sheathing, on top of the National Hall building in Westport. Westport and Norwalk departments collaborated on this effort.
The Westport Fire Department received calls of a building fire at 2 Post Rd W around 3:50 p.m. on Feb.15. Arriving units reported heavy smoke from the roof of the three-story building. Firefighters searched each floor to ensure everyone had been evacuated; no civilians were injured. One firefighter, however, was treated for minor wounds.
“The first thing I did was make sure everybody was out of the building,” Fire Marshal Nate Gibbons said. “I found two workers up in the attic where the fire was. They were trying to put the fire out. I said ‘Guys you gotta go, time to go.’”
The overheating of a steel pipe, recently installed as part of a new generator, caused the fire. Since the pipe was surrounded by a layer of wood and then insulation, rather than a layer of air between the wood and insulation, the pipe’s extreme temperatures ignited the materials, officials said.
“Like an exhaust pipe on a car, [the pipe] got really hot,” Gibbons said. “At the very top of the roof, where the pipe went through the insulation, there was wood. [The pipe] caught the wood on fire, and then the wood caught the insulation on fire.”
The fire originated under the roof’s sheathing. Westport Truck 1 searched the roof for the fire, while Norwalk Truck 2 helped with roof operations and Wilton Engine 1 provided manpower on the scene. Roadways were shut down in the area surrounding the fire on Wilton and Post Rd for nearly two hours.
“The difference between a successful fire and an unsuccessful fire has a lot to do with how many firemen you have,” Gibbons said. “[The Westport Department] is small. [That is why] we have a system of automatic mutual aid.”
The National Hall district is one of the few early nineteenth-century commercial/residential buildings left in Connecticut. The hall housed many leading nineteenth-century Westport businessmen such as Horace Staples and William Edgar Nash.
“I think the firefighters did a great job,” Shawn Zhai ’22 said. “I hope the town can restore [National Hall] quickly because it’s such an important part of our community’s history.”
Journalism has always been a passion for Web Managing Editor Giselle Oldani ’22. To her, Inklings is an opportunity to do good in the world.
“There’s...
