Long weekend of storm: 51 calls for Chappaqua Fire

March 5, 2010
by Chappaqua Fire Department Chief Russell Maitland 

The Chappaqua Fire Department responded to 51 storm-related emergency calls beginning Thursday, February 25, at 6:00 p.m. until Monday, March 1, at 6:00 p.m. These calls ran the gamut from wires down, trees down, trees and wires down together, trees on houses with structural damage, carbon monoxide incidents, a natural gas leak, auto accidents, smoke conditions and automatic fire alarms caused by power failures.

The firehouse was staffed around the clock from Thursday morning through midnight on Saturday, February 27, with members returning on Sunday early morning. We sheltered nine people during the Thursday/Friday overnight hours at the firehouse. A family of four who had to be removed from their residence due to structural damage from a fallen tree, and four New York State Corrections Officers from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility who could not make it back to New York City.

We requested that Jerry Faiella open a shelter in town to house these people as well as any others who would become displaced due to the storm. Early Friday morning, the family of four was relocated to the Community Center where the New Castle Community Emergency Response Team members had set up as a shelter.

Many of the addresses the fire department was called to were not conventionally accessible due to downed trees and wires.  These situation required firefighters to trek through properties on other roads that were in close proximity in order to gain access to the call location. Firefighters had to carry equipment through deep snow in the dark with falling tree limbs around them. Fortunately there were no injuries to the firefighters and we were able to reach all residents either physically or via phone to determine that everything was OK.

Tweet