Snowstorm Spawns Huge Volume of Fire Calls

By Andrew Gorosko

The October 29 storm that dumped a heavy, wet snow on the area caused countless trees and tree limbs to fall, often falling over suspended utility lines, including electric lines.

The locally downed wires among other factors resulted in the town experiencing what likely were the most extensive power outages in its history.

At one point after the storm, about 97 percent of local electric utility customers were without power.

The Connecticut Light & Power Company (CL&P) supplies electricity to nearly 11,000 customers in Newtown.

On October 29, the five local volunteer fire companies responded to a total of 195 calls for service. During a period of less than 13 hours, the number of calls received roughly represented the number of calls received  during a typical two-month period. 

Of the 195 calls that firefighters received on October 29, about 170 of those calls involved reports of “wires down,” a general term used to describe situations in which utility lines have been compromised, damaged, or brought to the ground, either through their own increased weight or due to objects falling onto the lines.

Because a majority of the leaves on broadleaf trees had not yet fallen off those trees by October 29, the trees held a huge surface area upon which the sticky, wet snow could land and stick, greatly increasing the overall weight of trees.

Thus, many trees overburdened by the weight of snow fell, often onto utility lines positioned parallel to roads.

The trees that fell onto roads posed the dual problems of blocked roadways and downed wires, some of which carried lethal charges of electricity if they were power lines.

On October 30, firefighters received 97 calls for service. Of that number approximately 65 calls involved wires down.

Bill Halstead, town emergency management director, said November 3 that the huge fire call volumes that occurred during and immediately after the snowstorm have tapered down as time has passed, with fewer and fewer calls being made for wires being down.

Mr Halstead, who also is the town fire marshal, said that although firefighters received several calls during the past week alerting them of “structure fires,” none of those proved to be very serious situations.

Likely the most serious incident reported as a structure fire occurred about 5:30 pm on October 31 at 48 Appleblossom Lane. A malfunctioning fireplace caused an estimated $5,000 worth of interior property damage, he said. There were no injuries.

Also, after responding to a report of a structure fire at 27 Jeremiah Road about 6:40 pm on October 29, four firefighters received injuries when a tree branch fell onto them, he said.

Two of those firefighters were transported to the hospital where they were treated and then released.

The Jeremiah Road fire, which involved an outdoor gas grill, caused minimal fire damage, said Mr Halstead, who is also the Sandy Hook fire chief.

The tree damage and extensive power outages caused by Tropical Storm Irene two months ago was clearly surpassed by the October 29 snowstorm, Mr Halstead said.