The Southington Fire Department is making a push to recruit volunteer firefighters as the number continues to dwindle, according to the town’s fire chief.

“For every 10 members we take in, we’re losing 13,” Chief Richard Butler explained. “In the last 10 years, I’ve lost 121 volunteer firefighters here. In 10 years. At that rate, I’m not going to be able to sustain the organization.”

Greg Porzycki is one of the volunteer firefighters on staff. He said a sense of duty compelled him to sign up more than 10 years ago.

“It’s not me driving the truck because I like to. It’s me driving the truck because someone else needs my help.”

Chief Butler said they are down to 81 volunteer firefighters, a staggering drop that mirrors a national trend.

The president of the town’s firefighter union agrees with the fire chief, adding that the town hasn’t significantly added to the number of career firefighters, which stands at 32, since 2000.

In a statement Glenn Dube said: “Southington is a rapidly growing community. The FD has struggled to match the town’s growth. We have not significantly added to on duty career FF staff in nearly 20 years…”

Both say training requirements, personal time constraints and an increase in call volume over the years have contributed to the strain. While fire officials say resident safety isn’t a concern at this point, they want to ensure it stays that way.

“I need interior firefighters that when we respond to a fire I have people who can go in the building to rescue, that make the rescue, advance the hose line,” Chief Butler said. “To get them where they need to be, sometimes it can almost take a year in time.”

Several police departments in Connecticut reported experiencing a 911 outage overnight.

Southington, New Britain, Farmington, West Hartford, Ledyard, Vernon and Putnam all reported problems with the 911 system around 2 a.m.

Those departments were asking residents to call their routine numbers for any emergencies.

NBC Connecticut Investigates obtained an email sent by the state to 91 directors. It said Connecticut's local service provider, Fronter Communications, was conducting system maintenance that disrupted the 911 network shortly after 1 a.m. 

Frontier confirmed the contents of that email late Wednesday afternoon.

The 911 issue was resolved around 2:45 a.m.

AT&T is the systemwide vendor for the state's 911 system and said the issue was local to the vendor here in Connecticut.

“Service was restored early this morning. There was a problem in the local service provider’s network. For any additional questions, please refer to Frontier Communications,” AT&T spokesperson, Kate MacKinnon, said.

A Torrington man has died of his injuries after a fire at his home on Stoneridge Drive last week.

Fire officials said 65-year-old John Needham died of his injuries Wednesday. He had been in critical condition at Bridgeport Hospital since a three-alarm fire at his home on January 3.

His wife, 68-year-old Donna Needham, died of her injuries on January 4.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. The Connecticut State Fire Marshal’s Office is working with Torrington fire officials on this case.

A suspect is in custody after a police standoff in Manchester Wednesday.

Manchester police said the situation stemmed from a domestic incident between a couple at a home on Elro Street.

Police said they responded to the home Tuesday but weren’t able to find the suspect. They returned Wednesday when they received a tip the suspect was back at the home. The Emergency Services Unit was called in because police believed the suspect may have a weapon and be hiding from officers.

After a standoff and SWAT response the suspect was arrested. No one was hurt and there was never a threat to the public, police said.

No other details were immediately available.

A Naugatuck elementary school was briefly placed on lockdown Wednesday while police searched for a possible armed suspect, and now police are looking into whether the initial report was a swatting incident.

Police said around 2:31 p.m. the got a call reporting a man wearing a tank top and holding a gun in the air threatening to shoot the next person to come on his property. The caller said the man was at a home on Sunburst Road and had facial tattoos, but could not provide an exact address.

Officers responded and the nearby Maple Hill Elementary School went on lockdown as a precaution. After an extensive search of the area and speaking with residents, no one reported anything matching the report and no suspect was found.

At 3:15 p.m. police determined there was no immediate threat to the public and the school lockdown was lifted.

Investigators said the phone number of the original caller came back to Washington state, and now police are looking into whether the call was a “swatting incident.”

Anyone with information should contact Naugatuck police at 203-729-5221 or the NPD Confidential Tip Line at 203-720-1010.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has agreed to deliver a classified briefing to U.S. House lawmakers on Thursday on his recent decision to lift sanctions on companies linked to a Russian oligarch and Vladimir Putin ally, marking the start of an aggressive new focus on Mnuchin by newly empowered House Democrats, according to two top Democratic aides. 

Mnuchin, who served as the Trump campaign's national finance chairman in 2016 before being confirmed to President Donald Trump's cabinet, has largely escaped investigative scrutiny, NBC News reported.

Hamden is making sure the most vulnerable don’t have to spend the night outside during the coldest time of the year.

Spend a little time talking with Pastor Bob Bergner in Hamden and you’ll hear about the generosity at Grace & St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.

Hearts are open, as well as now the doors to the church on cold winter nights.

“We’re committed to serving our community and reaching out to the community and helping people when they need help,” said Rev. Bergner.

Now the church offers a space as a safe and warm place for people to stay and grab a drink and light food.

It’s part of a new town program that started this week to open overnight warming centers, which are not shelters and do not have beds.

“There’s definitely a need for it. Hamden does have a homelessness population,” said Adam Sendroff, Hamden community development manager.

Sendroff says while it’s hard to pin down the number of people, what is clear is they didn’t have a lot of options before to escape the outdoors here.

Only during extreme winter weather did the town open temporary warming spots.

“We found that there’s really a need for more than that and the answer that just saying you can go to into New Haven isn’t a good answer,” said Mayor Curt Balzano Leng.

Leng says the town decided to team up with the Columbus House in New Haven, which helps people who are homeless.

The town will pay $20,000 for Columbus staff to monitor the centers which will run from January 7 through February 28.

People can rest at a center from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m., seven days a week.

“We have to really try and help our people and help people that are in need,” Leng said.

The center will operate at Grace & St. Peter’s for a month then switch to Hamden Plains United Methodist Church at 15 Church Street in Hamden.

Already people have shown up and more are expected as the temperature drops.

Donations can be dropped off at the Keefe Community Center at 11 Pine Street between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

They accept non-perishable foods, pre-wrapped snacked packs, fruits, beverages, new socks and underwear, gloves and hats.

With the federal government shutdown over two weeks and counting, federal employees in Connecticut say they’re more than ready for it to wrap so they can get a paycheck.

Father Jerry Connors is a chaplain at the federal prison in Danbury

David Fairbanks works for the TSA at Logan International Airport. For 19 days now both have been required to do their jobs with no pay due to the government shutdown.

“We’re told we have to show up and perform our jobs regardless of whether we’re paid,” Connors explained.

This is the second shutdown to impact Connors.

“It’s had an impact with a lot of my coworkers. For some of them who are younger and less fortunate than I am financially, it’s a struggle already,” he said.

He says he wants to continue to work, despite compensation, out of a sense of duty. But it’s getting hard and he wants lawmakers to do something about it.

“Months, maybe years. That’s not really helpful to the wellbeing of people who work and commit their lives to public service,” he said.

Fairbanks travels some three hours each day from his home in Putnam to Logan, a job he calls his dream. But making that kind of commute knowing right now it’s for free is anything but enjoyable.

“I’m angry frustrated a little bit sad. I’m sad ‘cause seems like no one giving federal workers attention they need,” he said. “I do my job regardless of my paycheck because it’s my duty but duty only gets you so far and doesn’t put food on the table or roof over my head.”

With each day that the political stalemate continues in the nation’s capital, these two wonder when the fight they didn’t start will end as bills come in.

“Grow up, do their jobs and produce something of value for the citizens of this country who you represent, including your employees,” Connors said.

Connors told NBC Connecticut that whenever this shutdown ends, he’d like to see federal legislation passed that would exempt rank and file government employees from enduring these same circumstances in future shutdowns.

A woman was found dead in a home in Watertown Wednesday, according to Watertown police, and authorities are treating the death as suspicious.

According to Chief John C. Gavallas, police responded to 24 Bushnell Ave. around 2:30 p.m. after a call from the owner's relative. The 70-year-old homeowner was found dead in the home.

Police said the victim's vehicle was missing from the home, and later found in Waterbury.

Watertown Police and the Connecticut State Police Central District Major Crime Squad are investigating. 

Americans are having fewer and fewer babies, a new government report finds. In fact, we now aren’t making enough babies to replace ourselves, NBC News reported.

For the population to reproduce itself at current numbers, the “total fertility rate” needs to be 2,100 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age per year, researchers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in their report, released early Thursday.

But the latest data show a current rate of just 1,765.5 per 1,000, or 16 percent below the number needed to keep the population stable without additions through immigration.

The total fertility rate has been declining steadily for seven years, but the numbers for 2017 represent the biggest drop in recent history. The rate for 2016 was 1,820.5; for 2015, 1,843.5; and for 2014, 1,862.5.

Police are investigating after receiving reports of a man in a van approaching a boy in Bristol Wednesday afternoon and asking him how to get to a school. 

Police said it happened near Anthony Drive and Brace Avenue around 2:45 p.m. and the boy’s father contacted authorities. 

He told them that the man, who appeared to be around 30 years old, was driving a white van and asked his son how to get to “the school,” according to a news release from police. A female passenger was in the van at the time. 

The child had no other details about the man, the van or the passenger. 

The father told police he thought it was suspicious that someone would ask a child who just walked off of a school bus for directions to no specific school, according to police.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly advocated for a steel slat design for his border wall. But Department of Homeland Security testing of a steel slat prototype proved it could be cut through with a saw, according to a government report.

A photo exclusively obtained by NBC News shows the results of the test after experts from the Marine Corps were instructed to attempt to destroy the barriers with common tools.

Testing by DHS in late 2017 showed all eight prototypes, including the steel slats, were vulnerable to breaching, according to an internal February 2018 U.S. Customs and Border Protection report.

Photos of the breaches were not included in a redacted version of the CBP report, which was first obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request by San Diego public radio station KPBS.

DHS did not respond to NBC News' request for comment. A department representative had told KPBS that the prototypes "were not and cannot be designed to be indestructible."

Another town has been hit by people posing as water company employees and police said the impostors got into the Vernon home of elderly residents and stole several thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry and cash.

In the Vernon incident, the men posed as Connecticut Water Company employees to get into the home Wednesday night, police said.

The crime happened on the same day another water company, MDC, put out a warning about water company impostors trying to gain access to houses in West Hartford and East Hartford.

Vernon police said they responded to a home on Grove Street just before 5 p.m. Wednesday to take a report of a burglary.

The elderly residents said two men who posed as Connecticut Water Company knocked on the back door and said they were there to do repairs on the plumbing, according to police.

The resident who answered the door let the men into the house and the male resident brought one of the men into the bathroom while the female resident brought the other man into the basement.

Police said they believe another man snuck into the house while the residents were distracted and stole jewelry and cash from dresser drawers.

One resident told police the man she was with talked on a “walkie talkie” like device and police said it could have been to signal the third man.

Neighbors reported seeing a gray or silver SUV or minivan leave the house and head south on Grove Street toward Hartford Turnpike and one neighbor had video surveillance that police said they believe captured the vehicle as it fled.

“Our hearts go out to the residents in Vernon who were victimized by thieves portraying themselves as Connecticut Water employees,” Connecticut Water said in a statement.

One of the men was described as “older,” about 5-feet-7 and 200 pounds. He was wearing black sunglasses, a dark blue jacket, a blue baseball hat, dark blue pants and dark brown sneakers.

There is no description of the other men.

Anyone with information is asked to call Vernon Police at 860-872-9126.

Police are also issuing a reminder for residents to verify the identity of anyone claiming to work for a utility company before letting them into your home, especially when the employee arrives unannounced and you do not have an appointment.

Utility employees carry photo IDs, wear uniforms and drive company vehicles.

Anyone who observes suspicious activity is encouraged to report it to police.

Connecticut Water said it has a customer protection program in place and employees rarely knock on the door without an appointment and never ask for payment during an on-site visit.

The company’s customer protection program e-mails a photo of the employee to the customer in advance of a scheduled appointment so they can have confidence that the person at the door is a real Connecticut Water employee.

They said Connecticut Water employees have company-issued photo IDs, drive vehicles marked with the company logo, wear company uniforms and are happy to provide ID.

Customers can also call 1-800-286-5700 to verify that the person at the door is an employee and the nature of the work they are there to perform.

Connecticut Water also has 8 Tips on Imposter Protection on its website. 

Investigators have not been able to determine the cause of a fire that killed a Torrington couple.

Donna Needham, 68, and her 65-year-old husband, John Needham, have both died after a three-alarm fire at the Stoneridge Drive home last week, according to the fire department.

The fire broke out on Jan. 3 and authorities said Donna Needham died of her injuries on Jan. 4.

John Needham had been in critical condition at Bridgeport Hospital since the fire and died of his injuries Wednesday, according to the fire department.

The Connecticut State fire marshal’s office and Torrington fire marshal’s office have completed the origin and cause investigation and said they were unable to conclusively determine a cause for the fire.

The official cause is listed as undetermined.

On the heels of their successful 2018 Project Innovation grant challenge that resulted in 6 local organizations receiving a total of $225,000 in grants, WVIT NBC Connecticut and WRDM Telemundo Connecticut today announced their grant challenge will return in 2019.

Project Innovation is a competitive grant program that is presented locally by NBC Connecticcut and Telemundo Connecticut in partnership with the NBCUniversal Foundation. In 2019, the stations and the Foundation will present a second round of $225,000 in grants to local organizations that are addressing local community issues through innovative solutions around four grant categories. Applications for Project Innovation open on Jan. 11, 2019 and close on Feb. 15, 2019. Project Innovation 2019 grant winners will be announced by the stations in April 2019.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS: Click here for the eligibility requirements.

In addition, the stations today announced the launch of their new dedicated Project Innovation websites that provide program, rules/eligibility information and grant applications in English and Spanish, to help more bilingual service organizations access the information they need to apply and be considered for a grant. For more information and to preview the grant application visit www.nbcuprojectinnovation.com. To access information in Spanish visit www.nbcuproyectoinnovacion.com.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: Click here to read FAQs about this year's grant challenge.

Project Innovation 2018 winners, including the Children's Museum in West Hartford, have leveraged the grant funding presented by the stations to create community solutions around youth education and community engagement, youth employment, civic engagement and STEM education.

“NBC Connecticut and Telemundo Connecticut are proud to be a conduit for innovative thinking as it relates to our communities,” said Susan Tully, General Manager and President, NBC Connecticut and Telemundo Connecticut. “The community’s gain is a gain for all of us. When a program empowers, engages and supports someone who needs help, we all win.”

Presented in 11 markets throughout the country, including Connecticut, Project Innovation is offered by the NBCUniversal Foundation and NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, a division of NBCUniversal. This year, NBC and Telemundo owned stations will present nearly $2.5 million in Project Innovation grants to eligible non-profits that are physically located in the participating markets and service each market, have an annual operating budget of more than $100,000, and are using innovation to inspire community solutions in any of the following four grant categories:

 • Next Generation Storytellers: Programs that empower the next generation of storytellers and utilize media to drive social impact.

 • Culture of Inclusion: Programs that seek to build pathways for diverse and equitable communities.

 • Youth Education: Programs that equip youth with the tools they need to succeed, including STEM/ STEAM education.

 • Community Engagement: Programs that enable individuals to engage and volunteer in their communities.

Project Innovation 2019 grants are available in select markets serviced by NBC and Telemundo owned stations, including New York (WNBC, WNJU), Southern California (KNBC, KVEA), Chicago (WMAQ, WSNS), Philadelphia (WCAU, WWSI), Dallas-Fort Worth (KXAS, KXTX), Boston (WBTS, WNEU, NECN), Hartford, CT (WVIT, WRDM), Washington, D.C. (WRC-TV, WZDC), Miami-Fort Lauderdale (WTVJ, WSCV), San Francisco Bay Area (KNTV, KSTS), and San Diego (KNSD, KUAN).

The LA Fitness on the Berlin Turnpike was evacuated and the nearby Sam’s Club gas station was closed after a gym employee found what looked like a live grenade in a trash can outside the gym, but the area has reopened after authorizes determined it was a hollowed-out training grenade.

The incident happened at 3563 Berlin Turnpike and the bomb squad was called.

Sgt. Chris Perry, of the Newington Police Department, said LA Fitness staff called them at 7:53 a.m. after an employee who was taking garbage out saw what appeared to be a live grenade with the pin still attached.

Officers and firefighters responded to the scene and police determined that it did look a live a live grenade, but law enforcement authorities determined the device did not pose a threat.

Before making that determination, police evacuated the LA Fitness.

"We were going to take a class at 8:30 a.m. Obviously, that's not going to happen. I'm going to wait just so I can get my stuff out. Hopefully, it's not real," Cindy McComb-Gavello said while the gym was evacuated. 

It was a training grenade with no explosives in it.

Police will try to determine who threw out the device and when they did it. 

The gym is reopening, according to police. 

Check back for updates.

If the ongoing partial government shutdown lasts "months or even years," as President Donald Trump has suggested, the country would face an economic hellscape, experts told NBC News.

That would include 38 million people without food stamps, 2 million losing rental assistance, 800,000 federal employees missing many paychecks, lapsed FDA and EPA inspections and more.

"We'll be in no man's land," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. He said the country would face a "pretty severe recession."

Such a long shutdown is unprecedented, but the current one will become the longest in U.S. history on Saturday, which would be its 22nd day. And talks between Trump and congressional Democrats blew up on Wednesday.

A New Jersey high school wrestler who was forced to cut off his dreadlocks before a match to avoid forfeiting was asked to cover his hair before another match this week — the result of an "unrelenting fixation" on the boy’s hair by wrestling officials, his attorney claims.

Buena Regional High School junior Andrew Johnson, 16, and his team were supposed to compete in a wrestling meet on Wednesday, attorney Dominic Speziali said in a letter sent to the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, which is investigating the December incident.

A day before the meet, a referee contacted Buena’s athletic director and said Johnson would have to wear a covering over his now cut hair if he planned to participate in the meet, Speziali said.

After some back and forth between the Buena school district, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, the New Jersey Wrestling Officials Association and the National Federation of State High School Associations, the meet was “abruptly canceled, without explanation and to the dismay of Andrew, and conceivably his teammates, who, like all wrestlers, must prepare and sacrifice in the lead up to every match,” according to Speziali.

The cancellation came two days after a NJSIAA wrestling official allegedly sent out an email with photos of hairstyles that would require coverings during matches, including a photo of "a young black man with a short twist out (a similar hairstyle to that of Andrew’s after his hair was cut),” Speziali wrote in the letter.

“The motivation behind the NJSIAA’s email reinterpreting the applicable rules isn’t clear, but it does not appear to be based on any known, or even alleged, safety issues that have recently come to the fore,” Speziali wrote.

Speziali claimed the email’s “questionable timing” was an attempt to “garner support” for Alan Maloney, the referee who told Johnson he'd have to cut his hair.

A now-viral video tweeted by a reporter in December showed an official cutting Johnson’s dreadlocks after Maloney, who is white, told Johnson, who is black, that he would have to get a haircut or forfeit the match.

Johnson participated in a tournament on Saturday "without wearing a hair covering and without any referee raising an issue about his hair,” Speziali noted in his letter.

“Andrew, his family, and, I would venture to say, the entire Buena wrestling team all desire to return to how things were before Alan Maloney’s actions set this chaotic atmosphere in motion,” Speziali wrote in his letter.

“Yet it appears, for reasons that the Division can hopefully soon unmask, that certain officials have a desire to unnecessarily escalate and prolong this ordeal due [to] an unrelenting fixation on the hair of a 16-year-old young man that asked for absolutely none of this,” Speziali added.

In a statement released on Wednesday, NJSIAA maintained it “shares the public’s desire for a speedy resolution to this important matter, [but] also is strongly committed to taking as much time as necessary to ensure that all aspects of the situation have been assessed.”

“As we previously noted, the referee in question [Alan Maloney] will not be assigned to matches until this matter has been thoroughly reviewed,” NJSIAA said. “This will help to avoid disruption of events for student athletes.”

News 4 has reached out to NJSIAA for comment on Speziali's letter.

Federal health experts reported Thursday that the U.S. drug overdose rate has soared for middle-aged women between 1999 and 2017, NBC News reported.

It rose a startling 260 percent for women between 30 and 64 years old, according to new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of drug overdose deaths rose 492 percent for the same group over the same time period.

"Prescription opioids clearly were overutilized for more than a decade," said Dr. Michael Lynch, medical director of the the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's poison center, who was not involved in the study.

Last year, the government reported that overdoses killed more than 70,000 Americans, driven most by opioid drugs like fentanyl.

Part of Route 5 is closed in Enfield after a person was struck.

Police said it happened in the area of Hathaway Avenue at Route 5.

No additional information was immediately available.