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Photographs from a slideshow presentation of New Milford High School Fire.

Photographs from a slideshow presentation of New Milford High School Fire. New Milford, Conn. July, 2022.

Photographs from a slideshow presentation of New Milford High School Fire. New Milford, Conn. July, 2022.

NEW MILFORD — The mayor has fired the company performing roof work at the high school, following the second roof fire at the high school since December.

The decision to fire United Roofing & Sheet Metal, Inc. in Brookfield comes after the fires, with the contractors also blamed for a pipe falling and a ladder hitting a town truck. The cause of the second fire has yet to be determined, but the fire marshal has said a December fire originated due to the roof work.

The company could not be reached for comment Thursday morning.

The July 5 fire caused substantial damage and forced summer programs scheduled at the high school to move to other locations.

Bass said Thursday he handed United Roofing a letter terminating their contract at Wednesday’s Municipal Building Committee meeting. United Roofing accepted the termination letter, Bass said.

Bass said “time is of the essence,” and he doesn’t think the town should have seek bids to complete the rest of the $4.76 million renovation of the roof project.

“We want to get kids back in school,” Bass said.

Dean Petrocelli, the architect of the roof project, has told Bass that two contractors could start working on the project in September. Bass didn’t share the names of the two contractors.

Bass said he has asked state Rep. Bill Buckbee, R-New Milford, to assist the town in avoiding the rebidding process. Part of the project is being paid with state funding.

Buckbee told Hearst Connecticut Media on Thursday that he has reached out to the lieutenant governor's office.

“We're looking into the legality of if we're allowed to do that — to receive the funding without going back out to bid," he said. “Since everyone's still not at the Capitol every day, it's a matter of tracking down all the people that are in place and talking to them.”

He added the town is doing everything it can “on both sides of the aisle, working with people in Hartford trying to see if we can allow this to happen, so we can go without having to wait any longer than they need to.”

At last week’s Municipal Building Committee, Bass said United Roofing workers were responsible for a pipe falling on the ground during the work, and a ladder hitting one of town’s Community Emergency Response Team trucks. These incident occurred prior to the fire.

The work the contractors were performing involved using a propane torch. The torch was responsible for a December fire at the high school, Bass said, when the same contractors were on the roof.

On Thursday, Board of Education Chairman Wendy Faulenbach said the district is striving to have portable classrooms sent in for the start of school.

“For the actual instructional piece, that is the priority, to provide in-person learning with portable classrooms — and that is still a work in progress,” she said.

She said the district is “racing the clock” to make that happen, “but safety comes first, and accommodating students. There are a tremendous amount of pieces to this. There's curriculum, there's transportation, there's extracurriculars.”

She added to prepare schools for a normal opening “is challenging enough, but now add this in. And so, that's the magnitude of really what we're up against. We all have the same goal, and I'm proud of that. I hope we achieve this. But it's literally all hands on deck.”

She has asked the New Milford community for patience.

“The community as a whole recognizes that remote learning would be the last resort and we're doing everything possible for you have that opportunity,” she said. “We ask the parents’ patience, and most importantly, we appreciate the community support. It's a team effort.”

When the fire broke out, about 30 students were loaded onto buses. Staff in the building evacuated.

Had the fire occurred one day later — on Wednesday, about 375 students would have been in the building in summer programs.