New London ― Seconds after the towering steeple of the former First Congregational Church collapsed onto itself on the afternoon of Jan. 25, frantic calls from horrified eyewitnesses began pouring into police headquarters.

Though some of the information relayed to dispatchers later proved inaccurate – there were no victims trapped under the tons of granite and timber that tumbled out of the 66 Union St. building – it was clear the city had a major disaster to contend with right in the heart of downtown New London.

“We went in assuming it was a worst-case scenario, a fire or explosion involving casualties,” Fire Marshal Vernon Skau said on Thursday from his Bank Street office inside New London Fire Department headquarters.

The response to the collapse entailed the rapid coordination of several local, regional and state emergency agencies, as well as the private construction crews who’d soon demolish the 174-year-old church that was home to two congregations.

Marshaling resources

As the tones rang out at 1:30 p.m. alerting city firefighters about the collapse, Skau was in front of a group of Nathan Hale Arts Magnet School fourth-graders.

“Ironically, I was explaining how our emergency management system works,” he said.

By 1:34 p.m., the collapse scene was already inundated with city fire personnel, including Deputy Chief Mark Waters who immediately signaled a second and third alarm, notifications that triggered automatic aid responses from neighboring fire departments and ambulance corps from Waterford, Groton, Mystic, Electric Boat and the Navy Submarine Base.

At the scene, Fire Chief Thomas Curcio, who also serves as the city’s emergency management director, noticed an ominous odor wafting in the air.

“I smelled gas,” he said. “We were initially worried this was a gas explosion, as well if there were any potential victims inside the rubble. At the same time, my phone was lighting up like a Christmas tree.”

At 1:39 p.m., a 100-foot aerial ladder truck from Poquonnock Bridge Fire Department in Groton rolled out for New London with four firefighters, said Chief Jeffrey Rheamue, an East Lyme resident.

How a department stages for a mutual aid request varies depending on the nature of a call, he said.

“We typically monitor New London and the surrounding area, so we’re usually aware of what’s going on before we get requested to go out,” Rheaume said. “In this case, the folks here anticipated we’d be needed before that second alarm came down. Sometimes we know our assignment before arrival, but in this situation there was a face-to-face with the incident commander.”

The Poquonnock Bridge crew was assigned to check the roof of the adjacent Manwaring building ― a fire inspector had previously pulled an alarm inside the structure to evacuate dozens of Connecticut College students ― for damage and scour the nearby debris field with a thermal monitor.

“When I heard the call, I initially thought it involved a smaller, storefront church whose ceiling collapsed,” Rheamue said. “I was in disbelief when I saw the pictures before I got there.”

As local resources marshaled, Curcio made a call to the regional office of state Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, or DEMHS, which activated the deployment of a host of state-level assets, including urban search-and-rescue teams, structural engineers and cadaver dogs.

Calls were made to city department heads, too, ensuring building officials were aware of the unfolding events and public works crews were prepared to station floodlights and vehicle repair crews at the scene.

“This is the reason we have our standard operating procedures, plans we’ve refined over the years, and the reason every firefighter gets weeks of indoctrination about their role in those plans,” Curcio said. “Everyone knows their job and who to call next.”

The department’s on-the ground response ran concurrently to that of fire investigators, Skau said. Even before ladder trucks staged, the police department launched a specialized drone over the church’s gaping roof, providing viewers with a virtual three dimensional mock-up of the church’s interior, as well as thermal imaging shots.

The first priority was determining whether anyone was trapped under the roof and steeple debris, Curcio said.

“We were lucky to have been able to speak to a woman who was inside at the time of the collapse who told us no one else was there and the church doors were locked,” Curcio said. “And police were able to check out nearby security camera footage that didn’t show anyone on the front lawn.”

Despite those assurances, officials waited until specialized K-9 teams finished their search sweeps hours later before formally ruling the scene clear of victims.

Putting training into action

Before firefighters arrived, New London police officers were already deep into their response efforts, Chief Brian Wright said. One of the biggest challenges in such an emergency is parsing the reliability of incoming information.

“The first thing we do is try and establish what’s been reported versus what hasn’t,” he said. “We scan for victims and then set up perimeters to ensure public safety and also to make sure incoming emergency vehicles can get to the scene.”

Wright said messages were blasted out over social media warning residents to avoid the area, a command post established and partner agencies called in.

“It was a fluid situation,” he said. “But we’ve been fortunate to have places like Millstone (Power Station), Electric Boat, the sub base and Dow Chemical nearby.”

The close proximity of those sites to New London means local agencies tend to train frequently on larger-scale emergency scenarios, Wright said.

“And we also have experience with large operations like Sailfest,” he said referring to the city’s annual waterfront event that draws thousands to the city. “We’re continuously going through these exercises, so when something like the steeple collapse happens, we’re better prepared than other places.”

Relationships pay off

As hard perimeters were set up around the church and side streets closed to traffic, more and more agency representatives crowded on the sidewalks of State Street in the early hours of the response, including those from the New London State’s Attorney’s Office and Connecticut College’s security department.

“We didn’t know right away if we were dealing with an explosion or a bomb,” Curcio said.

Juggling the scrum of emergency personnel from disparate organizations was made easier by the long-standing relationships forged over years of mutual aid response, Curcio said.

“Looking around the command post, we knew all those faces,” he said.

Rheaume said he was impressed by the resources New London was able to bring to bear within an hour of the collapse, including excavators and other private construction equipment.

“I knew those other chiefs from Groton and Old Mystic, as well those from DEMHS, just from the years of working together,” he said. “That’s how it should be; you don’t want to meet these people for the first time at a scene like that.”

As the hours ticked by, Red Cross and Salvation Army volunteers arrived with grilled cheese sandwiches, soup, hot drinks and bottled water. They’d return the next morning with breakfast sandwiches.

Investigation continues

New London fire fighters began to be released from the scene by 8 p.m. on the day of the collapse, though Skau and his team didn’t leave until closer to 2 a.m. the next day. Those investigators were back at the church every day through the weekend trying to piece together the cause of the collapse.

The investigation was made challenging by a lack of access to the site and its instability.

“The church was never cleared for entry, so we used ladder trucks to look inside, and I was able to look in from a doorway in the back annex,” said Skau, whose phone logged nearly 140 collapse-related text messages in the hours immediately after the collapse.

The city engaged a structural engineer specializing in historic building construction to try and piece together the chain of events that led to the collapse, said Skau, who added there is no timetable on when a final investigative report will be released.

Mayor Michael Passero called the speedy local, state and private response to the collapse a textbook example of how a city should react to a large-scale disaster in a populated setting.

“That’s because we have first-class fire and police departments that have pre-existing relationships with other agencies here in Connecticut,” he said. “That’s what made it all click.”

The church was completely razed in the days after the collapse, leaving vast hills of stone and twisted debris on the property owned by the Engaging Heaven Ministries group, a 150-member congregation that shared the worship space with a small number of First Congregational Church members.

Rheaume said he lately gets shivers of shock when traveling across the Gold Star Memorial Bridge and his eyes trip over the fresh gash in the New London skyline.

“I can’t believe what’s missing with that church gone,” he said.

j.penney@theday.com