Firefighter mettle tested by storm
Three area fire chiefs agree that Winter Storm Avery was the busiest emergency situation they've encountered.
Steve Bicehouse, the county's director of emergency services, said the five fire companies with the top five call volumes from last Thursday through Sunday were Unionville with 79, Herman with 57, Butler Township Station 3 in Meridian with 55, Penn Township with 53 and Connoquenessing with 40.
Chief Nathan Wulff said Unionville Volunteer Fire Department got its first storm-related call at about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, when crews responded to a vehicle accident in the freezing rain.
Two more accidents followed, and then the trees began to fall.
“At 4 p.m., we started getting issues with wires and trees coming down,” Wulff said.
He said from that time until late Friday morning, trees rained down on Route 8 and every other road in the township due to wet ground, ice accumulation and snow.
Crews on the way to or from calls came across trees blocking roads that they hadn't even been dispatched to yet.
“It was nonstop, one after the other,” Wulff said. “I personally cut up 75 trees.”
Wulff said keeping Route 8 clear so that ambulances in the northwestern part of the county could access Butler Memorial Hospital was a high priority for the fire department.
“Route 8 was particularly difficult,” he said. “At least two or three times an hour we had a tree blocking both lanes.”
He said firefighter safety was an issue at times, but all personnel came out unscathed.
“We were out cutting one tree up and directing traffic and another tree fell and almost hit one of my guys,” Wulff said. “That's how frequent it was.”
The busiest event Wulff could recall in his tenure with Unionville was hurricane remnants that came through this past summer, causing 23 calls in a couple of days.
“This was just unprecedented,” he said of last weekend's tempest. “Certain parts of our area were just decimated, particularly the Hull Plan.”
Wulff said the older plan, which is off Route 8 just south of the Clearview Mall, saw many old oak trees fall on wires and roads because their leaves caught and held the heavy precipitation from the storm.
“Basically every road in that whole development was blocked with trees and wires down,” he said.
One sight that lifted the exhausted firefighters' spirits, Wulff said, was the residents armed with chain saws who could be seen cutting trees themselves.
Wulff also appreciated the nonstop effort of the Center Township public works crews, who cut trees all weekend.
“That's fantastic when the community comes together like that,” he said.
Lou Zimmerman, chief at the Connoquenessing Volunteer Fire Department, said the department's initial call came at 7 p.m. Thursday for a tree down on Whitestown Road.
“And it just continued from there,” he said.
He said the majority of calls were for trees down on wires, and firefighters were on alert as trees continued to fall while they worked.
“You're out there working at four o'clock in the morning, and there are trees just crashing down around you,” Zimmerman said.
The chief also said Winter Storm Avery kept the fire department busier than any other event he could recall.“This is my 31st year with Connoquenessing and I've been fire chief for more than 20 years,” Zimmerman said. “We've been busy before, but nothing to this extent, even in the blizzard of 1993.”He said at one point, 80 percent of the township was without power, so he called his captain's wife to ask if she would set up a warming shelter at the fire hall on Main Street.The warming center was opened Friday morning and outfitted with hot food.“It remained open until Sunday evening at about 10,” Zimmerman said.The chief also activated the Connoquenessing Valley Regional Emergency Management Agency at about 5:30 a.m. Friday, when he asked the agency's coordinator, Dan Cox, for heavy equipment from Connoquenessing Township to move trees.“Anything I needed from the township, I just went through him,” Zimmerman said.He said the fire department was prepared for the event, with plenty of sharpened chain saws and fuel.“It was just trees on wires, trees on wires, trees on wires,” Zimmerman said.Dave Bestwick, chief of Butler Township Volunteer Fire District Station 3 in Meridian, said his department's work began Thursday evening.“It was Saturday afternoon before we got caught up,” he said.He said the station, on Sparks Avenue, served as a warming center and welcomed a steady stream of residents around the clock.“We were really pleased with the volunteers, the way they stepped up and served the community there for three days,” Bestwick said.Chain saws, fuel, fluorescent cones and a host of other apparatus was at the ready for the storm.“We are always prepared for any situation,” Bestwick said. “We've put thought into that for years now.”His firefighters' main task also was clearing trees from wires and roads.“We were very fortunate not to have any critical, life-or-death situations,” Bestwick said. “It was mainly service calls.”
