Chelmsford firefighter Nick Spinale came home Monday after spending a month in a rehabilitation facility recovering from a 40-foot fall from a building at the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy’s campus in Stow, his union said.
Spinale’s first stop was the firehouse to see his colleagues, Chelmsford Firefighters IAFF Local 1839 posted on Facebook.
Spinale, 28, suffered extensive internal and external injuries from the fall and has undergone multiple surgeries.
A video posted April 29 by the union shows Spinale taking his first steps since the April 7 accident.
Spinale’s accident has focused attention on the benefits firefighters who train recruits receive if they are injured at one of the state’s firefighting academies.
While contract employees at the academy receive state workers’ compensation in the event of an injury, firefighters who are injured on regular duty are eligible for more benefits under state law, a gap Spinale’s supporters are seeking to bridge.
“We are so proud of the progress our brother Nick is making,” the union said in the post. “While Nick continues his miraculous rehab and learns how to walk again, we hope our Town Manager, Fire Chief, State Fire Marshall and State officials ... [will] step up and do the right thing. Take care of Nick and all other firefighters moving forward.”
Spinale, who was a part-time employee at the academy when he fell, has been receiving workers’ compensation, a significantly lower amount than his regular salary.
While the town of Chelmsford has been paying him his full salary from his accrued time, Spinale will run out of sick and vacation days in June and is at risk of going into unpaid status.
If Spinale had been on duty as a firefighter when he was injured, he would have received his full salary and health insurance until he could return to work.
“It’s unfortunate that it took an event like this to kind of realize that there was this gap,” said Rob Albon, president of the Chelmsford police union.
Richard MacKinnon, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, said Spinale’s accident was the first time he could remember such a “critical and tragic” injury at a firefighting training facility. He said he hopes that legislation will soon be filed to provide Spinale with paid leave status until he can return to work.
“There has been strong advocacy from the governor to get this done quickly,” MacKinnon said. He said Governor Maura Healey’s office is also working with fire officials across the state on additional legislation that would cover firefighters who are injured at state training facilities, MacKinnon said.
Healey’s office couldn’t be reached for comment.
Spinale suffered internal organ damage when he fell about 40 feet from a window, landing on solid concrete. Albon expects him to be out of work for at least a year.
In Chelmsford, firefighters are asking the town to pay for Spinale to be on paid leave for the next six months and allow firefighters to donate six months of their sick time to him.
“The cost is not significant,” he said. “It’s somewhere around $60,000 for the town of Chelmsford. And the operating budget for Chelmsford is over $100 million.”
The proposal is slated to be discussed at a town meeting on May 18.
The town’s manager, Paul Cohen, said that while $60,000 would cover Spinale’s base salary, it does not account for additional stipends he receives as an emergency medical technician.
While Chelmsford has been covering Spinale’s paid time off and filling in his shifts, Cohen wants the state to reimburse the town for those costs.
“Given that he was injured working for the state, the town’s position is that responsibility for that cost lies with the Commonwealth, not the town of Chelmsford,” he said.
Since Spinale was injured, people have donated more than $170,000 to a GoFundMe campaign to support his recovery. The union is working to set up more fundraising events, Albon said.
“The community has been phenomenal. Everyone has been reaching out and asking what they can do to support Nick in his recovery, and we appreciate everything, and so does the Spinale family,“ Albon said.
Hannah Goeke can be reached at hannah.goeke@globe.com.