Firefighters Checked For Plague, House Filled With Fleas

Waterbury, Connecticut - Firefighters are used to dealing with threats from smoke and flames, dangerous footing or beams falling from above.  But Waterbury firefighters checking an abandoned building recently encountered a smaller but potentially deadly hazard. Fleas. Chief David Martin says Waterbury firefighters routinely check abandoned buildings for fire hazards, and when four fighters left after a check at 48 Taylor Street,   they didn’t realize until they came out and got back on the engine that they were literally coated in fleas. One of the guys described it as they had thousands of them, crawling on them. The firefighters were taken to Waterbury hospital to be undressed, scrubbed down and checked for flea-borne diseases, and the fire truck was professionally fumigated.  More