Saturday, September 3, 2011
Hurricane Irene kept Somerset Fire & Rescue Co. No. 1 and Fire District No. 1 very busy. Crews stood by from Friday at 18:00hrs. till Sunday 22:00 hrs. During that time Fire District 1 responded to over 300 calls for service. Somerset Fire responded to numerous flooded basements and many other emergency calls. During this incident Somerset Fire amassed in excess of 2500 man-hours.
Some of the other calls we responded to were:
- Multiple water rescue calls in District #1, Franklin Township and surrounding communities
- An overturned vehicle with entrapment
- Numerous activated alarms
- Wires down
- Trees fallen into houses
The most notable was the boat based retrieval of the NJ State Trooper and National Guardsman in Manville Borough. (Yeah that one) The now famous video which went viral on You Tube was the most notable event of the storm, can be seen here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6b54bZepoA
Long before the storm, Fire District No. 1 Officers organized planning meetings amongst themselves and Franklin Township OEM. As a result of these meetings, Fire District No. 1 established an area command as part of the overall County Command Structure. This allowed Fire District No.1 to utilize and control and its own resources and coordinate Fire District No.1’s response to the storm within the County Incident Management System. This pre-planning paid off; Fire District No.1’s response to Hurricane Irene was exemplary. As a part of the plan, Fire District No.1 had its own dispatch center. Any calls for service were sent from Somerset County to the Fire District No. 1 dispatch center. District No. 1 units were dispatched from there. All calls were sorted and dispatched to available units regardless of response area. The reduction of dispatch traffic and radio congestion left Somerset County to free to handle serious emergencies.
Congratulations to the Officers of Fire District No.1 for putting all their training to good use and showing their professionalism during this difficult event.
After Irene left New Jersey the task of cleaning up still loomed large over Fire District No. 1. Monday and Tuesday you could find District No.1 units helping our distressed neighbors get back to normal by pumping out basements in District No.1, Millstone Boro and Zarapath. Wednesday and Thursday District No.1 units responded to Bound Brook and Manville to assist our friends across the river with de-watering incidents.
All one can say after this 5 day ordeal is “Goodnight Irene”
Keep following this story as we keep uploading pictures from this marathon event
