IceStorm 98 Study

The first indication that something dramatic was coming was on Wed. Jan. 7 at 2 a.m. when the Fire Dept. got a call from Escott Twp. where several power lines were down due to ice. (the Twp. of Front of Yonge provides fire service on a contract basis to part of Escott)

The ice build-up did not alarm TB at first. He did not expect such a large geographic area to be affected.

TB could see ice build-up by Wed. evening and filled his own personal vehicle with gas in case he got called out.

The first indication of a major crisis was an 8 a.m. phone call on Thurs. the 8th from one of the fire fighters. "Tom, the power=s out.@ ASo what, the power goes out in the winter all the time.@ ANo Tom, the power=s out all over Eastern Ontario."

TB evacuated his house immediately and didn=t get back to make his bed for 11 days. He responded to the Fire Hall the morning of Thurs. Jan. 8 and took up residence there until 10 p.m. Sun. Jan. 17.

The Hall was manned 24 hours a day for 11 days, for the first few days without power.

"A lot of things happened in a short time period."

Fire fighters started coming to the Fire Hall on their own on the morning of the 8th. The Fire Hall received a lot of calls for generators and requests to power up furnaces and pump basements.

It quickly became obvious that lots of things had to be done right away like clear roads, man the Fire Hall, find a way to communicate, and get people out to survey for hydro damage and road blockages.

They didn=t have a battery radio in the Fire Hall but realized some of the trucks did. Fire Department radios worked and are on a battery back-up. Fire-fighters' pagers couldn't be re-charged until the Hall had power.

Keeping statistics was the last thing on the fire fighters' minds. They wanted to get control of things on the ground.

Reeve Mark Pergunas arrived at the Fire Hall around 10 a.m. on the 8th and he and TB got out the Twp. peace-time Emergency Plan, only to find the plan was seriously compromised. Telephone numbers were out of date and more seriously, a lot of phones were not working, some because they rely on electricity. Eg. The County phone system.

The Emergency Plan is now being up-dated but it is difficult to keep phone numbers up to date and there would still be communication problems.

The Reeve and TB decided things would not be getting better in a hurry and that they needed to plan for the next few weeks.

Standing in the middle of the Fire Hall, with TB trying to run the fire department, he and the Reeve decided they would need to set up a shelter where there was food and warmth.

The Fire Hall was still getting a lot of calls and fire fighters were out in department and personal vehicles responding to calls for blocked roads and driveways and to check on seniors.

Reeve Pergunas and TB started trying to identify resources and began looking for an Emergency shelter with heat, food, and communications. The Reeve settled on the Legion in Mallorytown.

The Fire Hall was the initial focus with lots of people calling to offer help and resources. A local electrician knew of an empty house where a large generator was being stored and it was soon made available for use at the Legion.

The Legion was partially powered up with heat, water, and some lights. A gas stove was available for cooking.

Midday on the 8th a local businessman called the Fire Hall and said he had access to rental generators and did TB want some. TB didn't have authority to commit the Twp. but the Reeve quickly decided he wanted the generators.

That first day was extremely stressful for everybody because of no electricity, no fuel sources, and difficulty communicating.

TB could always communicate with the fire dept. in Brockville though because they had a back-up generator for their system.

At 6 a.m. on the 9th the generators arrived on their way from Sarnia to Montreal. 11 portables and 3 large ones were dropped off in Mallorytown. "It was a godsend when they arrived."

The first large one went to the Legion and the whole building was powered up. The communications center had also been set up at the Legion, so it too now had full power..

The second went to the local grocery store in Mallorytown so people could get food, batteries, and fuel. (the store had been operating by candle light). The store also became a meeting place for people.

The third generator went to the Fire Hall and the Hall was powered up except for the heating system. They were able to keep the chill off with portable electric heaters.

On January 9th the Reeve and TB decided it was essential that the volunteer fire-fighters stay in the Twp. and that their employers could survive without them. Employers were very good about this. Some fire fighters lost wages and some took vacation time to serve the community.

The meeting room at the Fire Hall was converted to living quarters for some of the fire-fighters.

TB had to monitor the fire fighters on a regular basis for exhaustion due to lack of food, physical exertion, and stress. "Volunteer fire-fighters tend to be deniers." TB went without stopping for the first 42 hours and was continually monitoring what was happening in the field.

TB's two main resources are the Fire Dept. equipment and the volunteer fire-fighters. He couldn't compromise the ability of the dept. to fight fires by committing too many resources to the Emergency. Fire dept. generators used to pump basements were quickly brought back to the Fire Hall and a scheduling system for the fire fighters was put in place by Sat. the 10th.

From then on the fire fighters worked from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. on 4 hour shifts with 6-man crews. This was adhered to fairly diligently.

They were extremely fortunate not to have one fire alarm in 11 days. "It was miraculous with jerry-rigged heating appliances and old fire places being opened up."

The Fire Dept. quickly fell into a routine providing generator services and worked at staying prepared for a fire. 3 generators from the Sarnia load were trucked around the countryside by the fire fighters and used to fire up furnaces, pump basements and provide water to livestock.

"The Reeve did an exceptional job getting the community organized, he didn=t attempt to micro-manage and delegated responsibilities out."

Front of Yonge has been held up as a shining example of what to do in an Emergency by the Province and the Federal government.

Hard decisions had to be made in the field. Pumping of basements had to be made a low priority. Higher priority was given to clearing roads and getting people out who had no heat or food or who were in poor physical condition.

"There's going to be a lot of knee-jerk reactions and purchasing of unnecessary equipment."

The Fire Dept. provided 1,980 hours of service to the community in 11 days and fielded 2000 telephone calls. They responded 600 times providing generators, doing door to door checks, monitoring for CO, opening roads and unblocking driveways, and providing fuel. The Department would normally have responded twice during an 11 day period.

Fire Dept. staffing costs were $12,750.00, supplies were another $3500.00, and the total cost of the Emergency to the Twp. was around $75,000.00.

Money was always an underlying concern but the Reeve embraced the philosophy that it had to be done and they would worry about the dollars later. Looking after the people in the community was the first priority.

Residents from other municipalities were welcome at the FoY shelter and the Fire Dept provided services in the portion of Escott they are responsible for.

"The Township will feel the repercussions of this for years to come."

What worked?
The Legion turned out to be an exceptionally good crisis center and shelter. Meetings in Brockville were good for sharing ideas and resources.

What didn't work?
Communications were a big problem. People feel very isolated without a telephone.

What would you do differently?
Not much. Things worked very well. Start fire fighters on a scheduling system right away to lower stress. Stress manifested itself quickly among the fire fighters, some of whom had trouble sleeping and eating, abused alcohol, and neglected their own families.

They needed to find ways to relieve stress and get away from the Fire Hall.

TB was under a lot of emotional stress because he was concerned for the welfare of his fire fighters. The fear was always there that a fire fighter could be lost due to stress, particularly in a conflagration or house fire.

There is a need to have several members of the fire fighter community trained in critical incident stress management and initiate stress management at the start.

Forest/bush fires are going to be a big problem this year because of the extra fuel on the ground.

Personnel, not fancy bells and whistles make a Fire Dept. TB has 24 fire fighters he wouldn't trade for any department or budget in the country.

"I never saw a group come together so quickly, so tightly and function so well as I did this group here, and I've worked with a lot of groups."