The task force looking into problems at the Hartford Fire Department says that department is in chaos.
The task force was formed after the death of Firefighter Kevin Bell last fall. The NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters have reported extensively on the issues
The task force released its multi-page, final report at 4pm on a Friday, during a mayoral election year in Hartford. You may want to question its timing.
That said, the group of former fire chiefs and the current police chief made several recommendations. The task force says the fire department should permanently fill the vacant assistant fire chief position and add another assistant chief.
The task force came down hard on the department's understaffed training division...calling it an underperforming unit...recommending an investigation into unaccounted use of time in the training division.
The task force also calls for more training in ethics and other policies, you may remember a number of firefighters made headlines for high profile arrests in the months after Kevin Bell's death.
As for Bell's death.. The task force says it could not comment because other agencies, like the state police are still conducting their investigations. Over and over in this report though, it emphasizes that nothing will improve without hiring two assistant fire chiefs.
