STAMFORD — The city’s professional firefighters’ union is asking for a city lawmaker to resign following comments he made comparing the union’s frequent criticism of the city’s volunteer fire service to the way “Hamas lobs rockets into Israel.”

Scott Mirkin, R-13, co-chairman of the Board of Representatives’ Public Safety Committee, made the comments Wednesday during a telephone interview with The Advocate for a story in which city fire officials criticized a response by Long Ridge Fire Co. firefighters to a false alarm last weekend.

After making that comparison, Mirkin went on to say the debate around Mayor Michael Pavia’s proposed plan to merge Long Ridge with three volunteer departments in the city’s northern half has devolved into “a dirty, nasty political campaign.”

Local 786 President Brendan Keatley, a Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighter, said Mirkin’s comments were insensitive and displayed a lack of judgment.

“I find it reprehensible that one of the city’s top elected officials would compare professional firefighters, who risk their own lives daily to save others, to a terrorist organization that kills women and children indiscriminately,” Keatley said in a statement released Thursday afternoon, hours before Mirkin and other city lawmakers were to meet to review the mayor’s proposed fire department merger at a public meeting.

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