Mario Frulla, 82, fire chief, policeman

Mario J. Frulla of 17 Halpin Lane, a lifelong Ridgefielder who had been a fire chief three times, died Tuesday morning, Feb. 20, at Laurel Ridge on Route 7. He was 82 years old.
Town flags flew at half-staff this week for Mr. Frulla, known to most as Mugsy, who had worked for several town agencies over the years. He was one of the first paid firefighters and was also among the first Ridgefield police officers.
Born in Ridgefield on May 15, 1918, Mr. Frulla was a son of the late Enrico and Francesca Antognetti Frulla. He attended schools here and, in 1942, joined the Phineas C. Lounsbury Engine Company, a forerunner of the Ridgefield Volunteer Fire Department. Shortly after becoming a fireman, however, he entered the Navy, serving aboard a destroyer in the South Pacific for two and a half years.
After the war, Mr. Frulla was hired as one of the first paid firemen. The town had been hit with several major fires, made worse by slow response, and town fathers decided that someone should be on duty at the firehouse around the clock. Mr. Frulla was among those hired to staff the firehouse.
For many years, he also worked part-time as a town police constable — spending three days with the fire department and three with the police each week. A couple of years after the full-fledged Ridgefield Police Department was formed in 1955, Mr. Frulla was offered the job of patrolman. He gave up his job at the firehouse, though he remained an active volunteer, and served as a full-time police officer.
In 1961, amid much controversy, he was dismissed. He sued the town and seven years later, won a settlement of more than $10,000.
But it was as a fireman that Mr. Frulla was best known. He was elected foreman — equivalent of chief — of the engine company in 1948, and was chief of the Ridgefield Fire Department from 1956 to 1958, and again in 1963. It was a job he enjoyed and respected. “You have to figure out things and figure them out fast: How to lay out hoses and how to get water, and who to send in first,” he once told an interviewer.
He was proud of noting that during his years as a fireman and policeman, he had delivered three babies.
One of his favorite projects was working on the annual Firemen’s Ball, which, for many years, took place under a large tent at the old high school grounds on East Ridge. He recalled one year in which a storm struck three hours before the ball, flattening the tent and strewing tables and chairs across the field. Needing help in a hurry, he sounded a general alarm fire horn, and volunteers showed up to clear the grounds. The tent was pulled aside and “we danced under the stars and had a beautiful ball,” Mr. Frulla said.
In 1992 Mr. Frulla was honored for 50 years of service at a dinner that included messages from both Senators Dodd and Lieberman, Governor Lowell P. Weicker, and a citation from the Connecticut General Assembly.
Over the years, Mr. Frulla held several other jobs with the town. He worked at the town landfill and as a maintenance man at the Dlhy Ridge Golf Course. He served as director of Civil Defense and as a dog warden. He also worked for years as a deliveryman for Frances Cleaners on High Ridge.
Mr. Frulla was well known for his abilities in the kitchen. “He was a wonderful cook,” said his daughter, Patricia O’Connor of Bethel. “He was a from-scratch cook” who made his own pasta and sauces. “He was making risotto before it became so popular.”
He often cooked at the firehouse, where he was known for his pork roast, and at the Italian American Mutual Aid Society, where he was an active member most of his life, and had held various offices.
Less known was his interest in electronics. “He loved to tinker with radios, tape recorders, all sorts of things,” said Mrs. O’ Connor. “He’d pick up things that didn’t work, and he’d fix them. His basement was wall-to-wall electronics.”
Mr. Frulla also enjoyed compiling family history, including transferring old family movies to modern videos.
To many he was known for his outspokenness and his sense of humor. Asked in 1996 if he had any “secret addictions,” he replied with a smile: “Growing old and staying healthy. I don’t drink and I don’t smoke.”
“I’m certainly glad his path crossed mine in life,” said Michael Venus, former selectman and longtime fireman at the 1992 testimonial. “He’s certainly one of Ridgefield’s characters.”
Besides Mrs. O’Connor and her husband, Richard, Mr. Frulla is survived by a son, Gary Frulla of Ridgefield, who had been a firefighter for many years, and his wife, Mary; two other daughters, Antoinette Labella and her husband, Richard, of Norwalk; and Sandra Natale and her husband, Robert, of Washington, Conn.; a sister, Yolanda Torcellini and her husband, Donald, of Ridgefield; his former wife, Anne M. Frulla of Ridgefield; his companion, Dorothy Plisko of Ridgefield; four grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
His second wife, Ethel Fitch Frulla, died in 1986, and his brother, Fred J. Frulla, died in 1998.
A Mass of Christian Burial was Friday at St. Mary’s Church. Burial with military honors followed in St. Mary’s Cemetery.
The Kane Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.