New London — Inside a large glass case located a few feet from newly-named Fire Marshal David Heiney Jr.’s office sits burned and twisted objects from dozens of fire scenes.
There’s a warped doll, its features melted from a mattress fire. Other shelves hold rocks flushed from a fire main, husks of blackened smart phones and light bulbs whose surfaces bubbled with heat damage.
As he looked at the evidence on Thursday on the upper floor of the department’s Bank Street headquarters, Heiney pointed out the kinds of details that stick out after two decades of experience as a fire inspector, first in Old Saybrook, then Maryland and finally the Mohegan Tribal Fire Department before joining the New London department in 2015.
“If a smoke detector is working during a fire, it gets a soot ring around where the sound vibrates out,” he said. “And a larger light bulb will turn towards a heat source. I like figuring out the process and putting it all together. Like a giant puzzle.”
Heiney, a 36-year-old Old Lyme resident, was named the department’s new fire marshal on March 10 — he previously served as acting fire marshal — and will be sworn in during an April 4 ceremony. Three other firefighters — Diego Barboza, Brian Desilva and Evan Giesing — will also be formally sworn-in next week as lieutenants.
Heiney succeeds Vernon Skau, who was promoted to chief in June. Skau called his successor a “man of honesty and integrity.”
“He has the perfect temperament for the job of fire marshal,” Skau said Thursday.
Heiney, a third-generation firefighter — his twin brother is a firefighter/paramedic in Hamden — said the Town of Old Saybrook took a chance on him as a 20-year-old kid applying for the fire inspector program in 2003.
“This was a time when there weren’t many people that age applying for that school; it was a lot of older firefighters getting ready to retire or move to non-line positions,” he said.
Since coming to New London, he’s helped investigate everything from fatal residential fires to the 2024 downtown church steeple collapse on Union Street, in which he helped take 750 pictures of the site over four days.
“We’ll investigate 30, 35, 50 fires per year, and work with police detectives on second-alarm or higher fires, or as needed,” he said, adding his office has helped secure 10 arson-related arrests, including two involving homicides, since 2020.
But the majority of the job revolves around inspections, checking out residences, apartments, dorms and other spaces to ensure work and layouts conform to fire codes.
“For instance, (Lawrence + Memorial Hospital) has been doing work for the last five years since they were bought by Yale-New Haven,” Heiney said. “I was out there seven times last week to make sure exits weren’t affected by the work and temporary fire barriers were in place.”
Heiney, who also works as a part-time dispatcher for Valley Shore Communications, said new apartment construction throughout the city is keeping his office jumping.
“On any given day, that could mean a 15-minute inspection or an 18-hour investigation,” he said. “But I like being busy and there’s a great sense of teamwork here.”
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