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Firefighters face challenges in the winter weather

By Jon Andreassi 4 min read
article image - Zach Petroff
A fire at this North Union Township home earlier this month resulted in the death of 70-year-old John Capan.

As the temperature drops precipitously, firefighters face additional challenges and danger when responding to calls.

Bob Whiten Jr., chief of Charleroi Fire Department, explained how the bitter cold means his crews have to take extra precautions.

“You have to be a little bit in the back of your mind, ‘I don’t want to fall and get hurt,'” Whiten said. “Then we have to tend to an injured person.”

Firefighters are encouraged to pack an extra change of clothes. Because once all their gear gets wet, it will freeze just as fast.

“As soon as you come out with these kinds of temperatures, you’re frozen right now,” Whiten said.

Grindstone Fire Department Chief Richard Lenk said cold and snowy conditions slow down every step of the process in responding to a fire. Getting dressed takes longer, getting to the fire station takes longer and driving a 10-ton fire truck on snow and ice covered roads is difficult.

Once on the scene, water may not flow through the hoses properly, and makes every surface dangerously icy.

“Everything can freeze to your face. It’s horrible. You have more injuries that happen when you’re flowing water,” Lenk said.

Jordan Cramer, chief of the South Strabane Fire Department, recalled responding to a fire on North Main Street last February on one of the coldest days of the year.

He echoed other fire chiefs in how this affects the work.

“It’s not uncommon to see their gear frozen to their bodies, and icicles forming from their helmets. It requires more resources to keep personnel warm, as well as any victims that may have been affected by the fire,” Cramer said.

Whiten says his department brings in portable heaters to give firefighters a place to gather and warm up. Mid Mon Valley Transit and Charleroi Area School District also provide buses for crews and fire victims.

According to Lenk, at about 1:30 a.m. Friday Grindstone Fire Department were called to Walnut Street for an electrical fire.

Lenk said the fire had been caused when the occupants of an apartment building overloaded an outlet with two space heaters. The damage was isolated to the outlet and wires inside the wall. An occupant called 911 after smelling smoke and seeing it come from the wall.

The fire was caught early enough that emergency crews did not have to use water to extinguish it.

“They were really lucky,” Lenk said. “That could have been a bad situation there.”

Space heaters have become a common cause of fires in the winter time.

“It used to be chimneys. Now it’s the space heaters,” Lenk said.

Whiten cautioned against plugging these heaters into an extension cord or power strip.

“For an electric heater, that does not cut it. An electric heater draws a little more power,” Whiten said.

According to Cramer, heaters should be kept at least three feet away from any materials, and never plug more than one in at a time.

Cramer said people should also never heat their homes using a stove. Lenk agreed, acknowledging that some homes may not have heat.

“People use their dryers, people use their gas stoves, and that’s dangerous. I know that might be their only heat. They can go to a warming center, go to a friend’s house,” Lenk said.

Above all else, all three chiefs are adamant about the necessity of functioning smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Anyone who is without detectors can likely get assistance from their local fire department in having them installed.

“It’s a bad time of the year, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to get any better,” Lenk said.

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