IceStorm 98 Study

Jim Stevenson says that he knew that he was into something serious on January 8th at 5:10 am -- when he got a call for wires down and arcing -- and it was a car fire. When Jim Stevenson left his house he knew it was getting serious, he could hear trees banging and falling and he knew "right then" that things were serious. The first meeting of the Municipal Control Group (MCG) was at 2:00 p.m. on January 8th and after talks with Granite Power it was concluded that power would be restored by the end of the day. The MCG -- based on Granite's information -- went to "Alert Status." On Friday, January 9th, conditions worsened and all power was lost when the Ontario Hydro link went down. At 6:02 am all telephone communications, including 911 went down and the mayor declared a state of emergency.

Jim Stevenson says that his department responded with backup power to the police building -- which is shared with the fire department -- as well as 56 calls over the course of the ice storm, the majority of which were "wires down and arcing" or laying over houses, two chimney fires (minor) -- Jim Stevenson says that woodstoves were a problem because ice built up around the vents and blocked them, usually these corrected themselves as the chimneys heated and the ice melted. There were several calls for CO detectors, but no major problems in that regard. Many people were using portable heaters. As the power went down, Jim Stevenson says, they started getting fewer calls regarding arcing wires -- and the fire department began assisting social services, running and setting up the shelter, distributing generators, and doing door to door checks. Jim Stevenson has four full-time members and 26 volunteers all of whom were easily mobilized, they responded on the first call (by pager). The communication system (internally) stayed working once the generators were running.

Jim Stevenson says they started getting calls once the power was restored, mostly about missed lines, but Jim Stevenson says that in all "they didn't do too bad." The biggest aspect of the response was social services: otherwise Jim Stevenson and his men assisted where they could, either with social services or as delegated by Police Chief Brett. As the clean up got underway a group of the Brockville Rifles stayed in the station. The fire station was one of the first to get their power restored, Saturday morning.

Jim Stevenson says he thought about authority. His authority derives from the emergency plan, which he knew about because he's part of the control group. His authority was primarily fire-related, responding to emergency calls, and then as the emergency started to wind down his role became supportive of other agencies and as a result his department played a minor role in the ice storm.

There was a lot of pressure on the mayor: the MGC advised the mayor and the mayor made the major decisions.

Jim Stevenson says he did at first think about money, but generally not. Jim Stevenson says it cost his fire department 482 hours for $5,818.18 mostly in overtime for his men -- and $216 on fuel. Jim Stevenson says that their backup power ran their communications, some heat and lighting. A major fire would have complicated things more, that other departments were busy so that mutual aid was limited, and the lack of their compressor meant that they did not have breathable air (if they needed it). Jim Stevenson says that he notified Seeley's Bay about the availability of air.

Jim Stevenson says that as things moved along he realized that his volunteers had their own families and concerns so that he knew he had to set up a rotation so that his men could get home. Some, of course, did not want to leave the action. But they were getting tired. Jim Stevenson set up a schedule on a rotating basis so that a 3 person crew was covering the station from Friday through to Sunday. Jim Stevenson says that he did not really have a firm schedule of priorities beyond manning the station and keeping the equipment in good condition -- and maintaining a stock of fuel. He says he was planning a course of action -- that he had made a connection with a gas station using their generator -- but the power came back on before they had to rely on that. Keeping his generator running was a priority, otherwise they operated as they normally would under any fire emergency.

Jim Stevenson says his own radio system stayed working throughout so that communication with his own personnel was never a problem. Communications internally were good -- though only when there were problems. One guy was delegated to generators and other to vehicles and fuel. Jim Stevenson had contact with the public only during the door to door checks. Jim Stevenson says that they were able to get messages through the Brockville radio station. During the door to door they advised on the danger of CO and the use of candles. But generally the chief of police was in operational charge.

Jim Stevenson says he worked mostly with the core group, headed up by the police chief in consultation with the mayor and the head of social services and the health department. The core group met regularly, though the meetings did not always start on time. Good ideas were generated, however, and updates were frequent. The door to door checks identified elderly people and where they were in the town.

Jim Stevenson says his men did the house to house checks on a rotating basis, the station is manned 24 hours around the clock. So minor things did not require the full volunteer force, the man on duty could check it out.

Jim Stevenson says that what worked well was the guys themselves, the firefighters who recognized that this was a major event and they worked well together. They communicated with each other well, the organization was good (crews for trucks). What did not go well was the meetings of the core group -- and the station was too busy with all the confusion, noise from generators and so forth. They are now working to address that.

Jim Stevenson says that his trucks worked well -- they had no problems during the storm. Jim Stevenson says that their generators were problematic, they were too small for the job demanded of them. They had to run them too long and they are now trying to design a system of generation based on natural gas.

Jim Stevenson says that the fire department office space was over-crowded and recording of information was difficult because it was coming so fast -- and the room was overwhelmed with people standing around talking, that they did not have answers for the kinds of questions that people were calling with.

Jim Stevenson says that his biggest problem was fuel. They were getting low at one point and it was becoming a concern. A major event would have been problematic without sufficient fuel. Jim Stevenson delegated one man to that job -- but the power was restored and they were able to pump fuel before the situation became critical. So all the trucks were fueled, the police got fueled, and they managed to fill a bunch of jerry cans in case power went out again.

In future Jim Stevenson says he will arrange to have a fuel truck brought right in to the station.

Jim Stevenson says he does not know what he would do differently: he says he would put some stuff (organizational in nature) into place sooner, like keeping the fire hall clear so that people working could actually work. He would ensure that people don't get burnt out like they did in some places. Jim Stevenson says he had power on by Saturday morning, which greatly saved their situation. Otherwise nothing has changed as a result of the ice storm.

The biggest consideration (as Jim Stevenson sees it) is feeding the guys and getting them to rest so that they can be turned over on some kind of schedule. Jim Stevenson says he was concerned with the mutual aid system in the event of a major fire -- but nothing happened on that front -- and Jim Stevenson worried a lot about the safety of his men in the context of falling branches and so forth. Otherwise Jim Stevenson says that nothing has changed in his standard operating guidelines.

Jim Stevenson says the emergency plan is out of date, but the basic intent is there and that his role is fire-related, and once that role was filled it was to assist with other agencies. Jim Stevenson says his was basically a minor role.

Jim Stevenson says he has training in Peacetime Plans and Operations (the name has changed) and that he has recently updated (last fall) and that it consists of resources planning and that the training came in handy. They had no major incidents, however, and no fatalities -- so they did not really have to get into any "critical incident stress stuff" as they did in Brockville.

Jim Stevenson says that other surrounding departments had it much worse than his own, because they were without power for longer.

Jim Stevenson had no contact with the federal or provincial emergency measures people -- that was all done through the mayor. Jim Stevenson had no contact with the media, all that was done through the chief of police.

Jim Stevenson says that as the event went on people started to get tired and even he had to go home and get some sleep -- that everyone was tired. Jim Stevenson says he did not see a lot of stress among his men, mostly fatigue and concern about their own families, but generally he thinks they handled it well. The guys helped each other. But the fun wore off quickly and as it dragged on it started to get harder.

Jim Stevenson saw no signs of stress among his family -- they were warm enough and did a lot of reading. Jim Stevenson never lost his home phone and generally things were not that bad among his own family. Neighbors got along well, his wife never got past the voice mail of her own employer (Corrections Canada).

Jim Stevenson says that a farmer came to the fire station to see if he could get some water for his cattle -- which was no problem -- but three minutes after he left there were another four farmers looking for water. Jim Stevenson found that funny. Jim Stevenson says that he was amazed at the number of people walking around in the middle of falling branches -- as dangerous as it was. He says he never moved his car out of the station parking lot, but by the time he was ready to go home and rest his car was so covered in ice that he could not move it anyway.

Jim Stevenson says he is not anxious for an encore of the ice storm. He is distressed by the damage to the trees, as beautiful as the ice itself was. He thinks they might do all right, that they are leafed out, but some of the damage is "pretty severe" (particularly Hickory Island).