CHIEF: LACK OF WORKING SMOKE DETECTORS MADE WESTERLY FIRE WORSE

State police — Montville

Keith Plante, 28, of Griswold was charged Wednesday in Griswold with third-degree suffocation/strangulation and disorderly conduct.

Marissa Casucci, 26, of Clinton was charged Tuesday in Griswold with failure to keep narcotic in its original container, use of drug paraphernalia and possession of a small amount of cannabis-type substance.

William Llorens, 58, of Enfield was charged Tuesday in Griswold with first-degree failure to appear in court.

Waterford

Luis Rosario, 41, of 230 Ledyard St., New London, was charged Wednesday with driving with a suspended license.

Christopher Moorcraft, 48, of Glastonbury was charged Wednesday with first-degree larceny.

Antwan Ashford, 35, of 520 Ocean Ave., New London, was charged Wednesday with fourth-degree larceny.

Luis Velez-Ramos, 25, of 4 Orchard St., New London, was charged Wednesday with driving without a license.

Police logs reflect arrests, not convictions. For the outcomes of criminal and motor vehicle arrests, visit bit.ly/CTConvictions.

Westerly — The 15-month-old boy burned in a Tuesday night fire at 22 Nichols Lane reportedly is “doing very well,” Westerly fire Chief John Mackay said Thursday, emphasizing that the home had no functioning smoke detectors.

Mackay said the blaze began shortly after 7 p.m. and started in the kitchen, on the stove. Once they realized the home was on fire, Mackay said, a man and two children escaped through a bedroom window onto the garage roof, then moved from the roof to the ground.

Mackay said the man is not related to the children and the mother was not home at the time of the fire. Mackay didn’t know any more about the man’s connection to the family.

On arrival, town firefighters learned the toddler still was inside the burning home. They entered it and rescued the child from a dining area one room away from the kitchen, Mackay said.

Crews took the toddler to Hasbro Children’s Hospital, where officials reported Thursday morning that he was “doing very well,” Mackay said. He suffered burns to at least 15 percent of his body and had issues stemming from smoke inhalation.

Mackay said a firefighter was injured while fighting the flames, likely from overexertion. That firefighter was treated and released.

It took crews between 30 and 45 minutes to knock down the bulk of the blaze, which Mackay said likely would have been less serious if the house had working smoke detectors.

“When the fire started, they would have gone off and the adult male would have heard,” he said. “Maybe the baby would have been a little hurt, but not this significantly. And it wouldn’t have put us at the risk of entering a burning building.” border the lake.

Knowing members of the companies would be out on the water, Savalle further called on Colchester to send an ambulance down as backup, should anything happen.

Savalle said members in the Gardner Lake boat quickly located the man and pulled him to safety. He appeared to be suffering from hypothermia, Savalle said. Crews took the man to the William W. Backus Hospital for treatment.

It was unclear why the man was in the lake, as the 20-foot, one-person boat he had been in was still afloat, Savalle said. The temperature of the water, he said, probably is somewhere between 38 and 40 degrees.

Savalle said the resident state trooper worked with the tax collector to determine the man’s identity, which was not immediately available Thursday. Bozrah firefighters brought the boat to shore, where members of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection evaluated it.

“It was very quick,” Savalle said of the rescue. “The system worked. Our training worked. The lake was as smooth as glass and the rescue couldn’t have gone better.”