Top 10 Westchester Incidents of 2009

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2009 began with municipal layoffs that told us that emergency responders were expendable. Throughout the year, politicians and some members of the public and media criticized how much money we make and painted our retirement benefits as evil.

The year ended with a loss that showed all how irreplaceable and priceless we really are.

#10 Archville- Multiple Alarm Fire January 16th

Five departments battled an overnight fire that heavily damaged the ‘Guadalajara’ Mexican restaurant, across the street from the Archville fire station.

#9 Yonkers- Multiple Alarm Fire July 1st

Dozens of residents were evacuated after an early morning fire spread from the 2nd to the 3rd floor of a 6-story apartment building on Bronx River Road.

#8 Mount Vernon- Multiple Alarm Fire May 26th

Two homes were damaged and three families left homeless in an early morning fire.

#7 Bronxville- Trench Rescue February 12th

The Eastchester Fire Department, along with several mutual aid departments and Con Edison, rescued a worker trapped in a collapsed trench behind a mansion.

#6 Yonkers- Substation Fire and Chlorine Leak November 4th

Within hours of each other, Yonkers Fire and Police Departments responded to a fire at a Con Ed substation and a chlorine leak at Hillview Reservoir. Both situations successfully mitigated with no injuries.

#5 Lake Mohegan- Multiple Alarm Fire June 23rd

More than half a dozen departments responded to a fire that destroyed the former Curry Ford car dealership on Crompound Road.

#4 North White Plains- Double Fatal Fire December 31st

An early morning fire took the lives of husband and wife despite the valiant efforts of police officers and firefighters.

#3 Yonkers- Severe Storm, July 7th

The National Weather Service said it was not a tornado, but the people who experienced it first hand will strongly disagree. Just before midnight, a storm moved through Southern Westchester that the NWS deemed not be a tornado, but a down-burst associated with a "supercell" thunderstorm. The storm produced wind gusts of 75 to 80 mph and several inches of large hail. Over a dozen homes were left uninhabitable with 17,000 residences without power- 8,500 in Yonkers. Several injuries were reported and amazingly no was was killed.

There were two great tragedies in the past year, neither befitting a number.

On a warm summer afternoon, seemingly out of the blue, eight people were killed on the Taconic State Parkway. The circumstances were nearly as horrifying as the details. The Schuler, Bastardi, Longo and Hance families will not soon be forgotten.

On a cold fall night, a seemingly common house fire on Yonkers’ Nodine Hill took the life of Firefighter Patrick Joyce. The fire, set intentionally, led to the first line-of-duty death in the city in over 20 years.

These events serve as a reminder that unexpected calamity can come at us from out of the blue and in the middle of the night, in the form of ‘the big one’ or just a ‘ground ball.’ We should never forget the past and always prepare for the worst.

Truck4

Discussion thread: http://www.emtbravo.net/index.php?showtopic=34970

Incidents were selected by a panel of EMTBravo.com moderators based on, with no factor holding any more weight than another, size and scope of incident, response to incident, loss of life, effect on response, training and operating