Michael Paul Mizzone rescued Josef R. Bruckuf from burning, Orange, Connecticut, February 12, 2009. Bruckuf, 82, lay unconscious on the kitchen floor of his one-story house after an accidental fire broke out in the adjoining living room. His neighbor, Mizzone, 47, carpenter business representative, discovered the fire and, barefoot, ran to Bruckuf’s front door. Deteriorating conditions, including flames breaching a front window, precluded entry there. Mizzone then went to the back door, opened it to dense smoke, and entered the house. He started to crawl through the kitchen but had to retreat for fresh air. On a second attempt, Mizzone crawled into the kitchen and found Bruckuf at the opposite end of the room. He grasped Bruckuf and crawled back to the door, dragging him, again having to retreat for air before he removed Bruckuf from the house. Flames grew quickly to fill that end of the structure. Bruckuf was hospitalized for treatment of serious burns and died of them six days later. Mizzone also required hospital treatment, for smoke inhalation, and he recovered.
81960 – 9307
81960-9307Obituary
Michael Paul Mizzone, 57, was employed as a union representative before he died on July 15, 2019, at his home in Orange, Conn.
Mizzone was born on Jan. 4, 1962, in Bridgeport, Conn., to Pasquale and Vivian Hoja Mizzone. An active member of the community, he was a master mason 32nd degree and a member of the Scottish Rite of Ansantawae Lodge #89 in Milford, Conn. He also belonged to the Carpenter Union Local #210, B.P.O.E. of Wallingford Lodge #1365 and Sons of the America Legion Post #196 of Milford.
Mizzone was a football coach in West Haven, Milford, and Amity while coaching all four of his sons in Pop Warner football, and he helped coach his daughter’s softball team in Little League.
He was a proud recipient of the Carnegie Medal for rescuing a neighbor from his burning house. “Not only did Michael go once into a burning building to rescue a neighbor, he did it twice,” Orange Fire Marshal Timothy Smith told a reporter for the New Haven Register in December 2009, when the Commission announced Mizzone’s award. “Most people would stay away because it’s too dangerous, but he didn’t. He risked his life twice.”
He was married to Jennifer Mizzone and the father of Michael Anthony Mizzone, John Paul Mizzone, Marissa Ann Mizzone, Patrick James Mizzone, and Marcus Alan Mizzone, all of Orange.
Mizzone was buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Bridgeport.
(Edited from an obituary published on the website of the Smith Funeral Home in Milford.)