Preparing For Storm Season

[x635 4,066]

With Superstorm Sandy brutalizing our region almost one year ago, I'm wondering if any departments have made changes or additions to deal with another major storm.

Has any department bought tree-specific chainsaws, trash pumps, generators, hot sticks, etc? Improved communications? Zodiacs? Added a bunk room into the firehouse? Set into place new protocols?

Just interested to see if any department is being proactive.

[shfirefighter 19]

Bigger refrigerator and also trying to get a generator for the fire house.

Edited October 13, 2013 by shfirefighter

[Bnechis 3,961]

Due to the Federal Shut Down. FEMA has cancelled all storms.

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

Hot sticks are you kidding ? all wires are LIVE, put tape around make it as safe as you can. We are not Con Ed. Chief gave them to us once and we gave them back. Hot sticks we don't need no stinking hot sticks !

[Remember585 815]

The storms over the past couple of years have highlighted some needs for us, and we have either received those or are in the process of securing them.

We lost our old, aluminum "Rescue Boat" during Irene. With the FEMA money we replaced it with a 14' Mercury RIB w/ 25 HP motor. We (prior to this) expanded our water rescue abilities with training and equipment, as well as dual-responses with neighboring Yorktown FD's Water Rescue Team. During Sandy, we were able to put this boat on the ready as well as our spare 12' inflatable.

Sandy knocked out power to our only firehouse without a generator. Although it is in the Capital Budget for next year, our village has approved to pursue a federal grant now to install it. Hopefully it works out.

The storms have sent us on dozens of calls that don't truly require the response of our larger apparatus, nor a ton of manpower. This year we were able to get the village to purchase us a Utility Truck, which we are in the process of getting ready to purchase and build.

This vehicle will be outfitted with extra saws, traffic barricades, trash pumps and the like for storm-related calls. It will also allow us to take specialized equipment from a rig going out of service and keep it on a vehicle so we don't lose it - something we've lacked for a long time.

Lastly, our "Radio Room" has seen some equipment additions and upgrades, and more on the way. This will give us a better place to set up and dispatch our units from during storms. A secondary communications system has been built and put on another firehouse - which is also our Village's backup EOC now.

I believe anytime we come up short on something, that should be the last time. If we don't learn from our mistakes, we are doing a disservice to everyone.

[Tanker 10eng 140]

I am hoping that Seagrave will give us a fully working defroster for our new tanker before winter storms...

[Jybehofd 85]

nothing has been done so far, it was said that lessons were learned. but that can be the lack of the budget. simple things would be nice like nylon tow straps, but i am sure more resources would be put on the road if one came again. to improve response times to areas that can be extremely difficult to get to. but i have been told were a secondary response agency in the past and things like this aren't our concern.

[TFD141@aol.com 26]

My volunteer FD is installing a larger emergency generator (in progress now), new heating system and electrical wiring to better withstand the weather related on/off power problems which caused several problems like burning out our emergency genset. We have the AC detector "hotsticks" on all rigs to detect down wires or unsafe electrical AC situations. We placed a 6x6 polaris with rescue stokes/brush Kimtek unit in service to assist getting around as well as we have a 4x4 utility pickup to get around down tree or off road areas. ( we had to go through woods to a backyard to access a EMS situation as the front street was blocked with down wires), I am qualified 35KVA & 4KVA glove hand line constructor supervisor so we do have live line (hotstick) tools and HV & low Voltage gloves and a Certified Utility Safety Administrator (CUSA) environment, health and safety utility administrator so I have extensive experience on transformer/utility fires and spills (benefit in a volunteer organization that many people bring outside skills to the table, and I invite career depts to request my/our help anytime if they don't have those skills). I agree the hot stick program about 10-15 years ago was not a good plan as the training was minimal at best. I do agree the AC detectors (one brand name also uses "hotsticks" which was a poor choice and they agreed it was a poor choice or names) is good but only with ongoing intensive training on utility systems, wires and equipment. We also have purchased more chain saws ( at least one per rig), pumps and generators. I have been pushing for more member assistance equipment so the firefighters family is in power and therefore not as much a worry to the member firefighter to respond or be on duty. We do storm standbys for the duration of most storms and have beds, food, etc. Our town and police/EMS and FD's have a command post in our OEM center manned during storms and we are getting better each time. We also have community center open for displaced residents. Our town instituted a phone call notification system for all residents to be updated. We are working with town on emergency mobile buffalo style fuel and water tanks. We store more barricade tape and upgraded in-house fuel tanks. We have zodiacs in each FD and split our district up on auto MA caused by river/creeks cutting off temporary access. We have more barricades and cones and traffic signs then ever. We also acquired a mobile flood light and generator. we built a new storage facility to help store the items. We have trench/building shores and lumber stored for collapse possibility. More haz mat materials for spill control in storage. Every FF has a portable which is the same as our trunk portables but also has our high band fireground frequencies with software to go trunk (DES limits the number of trunk portables) if needed in case one trunk goes bad. We have 3 notification systems to alert members ( pager, cell phone, area siren) and will be installing a new "I AM responding" system shortly. We have more flood suits and PFDs and ropes. We do not have swiftwater suits however would call the WCTRT for that need. We do have extensive rope rescue, confined space and related equipment, and yes training and more training.

[JackEMT 77]

Many homeowners have gotten emergency generators during or after Super-storm Irene. But as you seen in LI, that drives a demand for gasoline the longer the outage continues. Have neighborhoods figured out how to get power to fuel stations during extended outages? (This is assuming public safety sites like PD, FD, hospitals, etc are taken care of first).

Have departments set up or conducted safety classes/inspections for emergency generators? In New England, there were a couple house fires due to generators. Obviously stand-by generators (hardwired into the house) should be inspected, but portable emergency generators can be bought and used without inspection.

[PEMO3 523]

This is not withstanding the CO risk from homeowners putting these running generators either right nextto the structure or inside the garage to prevent theft.

[38ff 250]

We just had Central Hudson give us a class on downed lines and emergencies dealing with power lines. They were very clear, they doesn't want FDs to use hot sticks or the like to move downed lines. We will leave that to them.