HARTFORD – Municipal first responders including firefighters, police and EMS personnel would be eligible for Workers’ Compensation benefits for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder under legislation that overwhelmingly passed the Public Safety and Security Committee on Thursday.
The bill, which was drafted as a response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre of December 2012, but failed last year in the General Assembly, heads to the Senate floor after the 22-3 committee vote. To be eligible, first responders would have to display mental health issues after witnessing a dead body.
Rep. Stephen Dargan, D-West Haven co-chairman of the committee, told lawmakers that the carnage seen by first responders in Newtown was disturbing and life-changing. A former volunteer firefighter, Dargan told the committee that he vividly recalls a motor-vehicle fatality to which he responded in his hometown.
“Anyone that has been a first responder will always tell you some incident that always stood out in their line of duty,” Dargan said. “I still see that in my mind all these years later. Some can move forward while others need help.”
Several committee members were concerned that it might be an unfunded mandate on towns and cities.
“This is narrowly scoped,” replied Sen. Timothy Larson, D-East Hartford, that city’s former mayor who is co-chairman of the committee. “I think we ought to be able to provide not only for these first responders, but their families, with some peace of mind on this issue.”
Larson was less persuasive over a bill that would require single-family homes to have smoke detectors with batteries that last 10 years. The bill, advocated by Stamford’s legislative delegation, died 13-12.
“I have trouble with the mandatory use of 10-year batteries,” said Rep. Janice Giegler, R-Danbury, a committee member. “It sounds like a scary thing to me,” said Sen. Edwin A. Gomes, D-Bridgeport.
KDixon@ctpost.com; 860-549-4670; twitter.com/KenDixonCT; facebook.com/kendixonct.hearst; blog.ctnews.com/dixon