The Challenges of Responding to Incidents During and After Winter Storms

As we all know, winter storms can certainly complicate the incidents we respond to.

One of the most obvious ways is access. It doesn’t matter if your district is urban, suburban or rural, snow and ice makes getting to, and getting into, our destination a challenge.

Obviously, knowing your district and the capabilities and limitations of your apparatus is very important to a successful operation in any response situation. Winter storms, and their aftermath are certainly no different.

In the urban setting, getting any apparatus into tight streets can be a challenge on the best of days.

When snow and ice have built up on these streets, it can become quite challenging, if not impossible, to get apparatus anywhere near your incident.

Small streets in tight neighborhoods clog up quickly, as there is very little space to place the snow. When residents shovel out spots for their cars, there aren’t many options for the placement of the snow.

So, very often it ends up in large piles between parking spots. And of course, people sometimes just shovel it into the street. This, combined with the creative ways that people now must park, can make it impossible for plows to get down the streets.

Because there is no plowing taking place, the roadway becomes compacted, and eventually that snow turns to ice. As the ice wears away, ruts form, much like wagon trains created ruts in the mud many years ago.

These ruts, combined with people not parking as close to the curbs as they normally would, can sometimes make navigating a street more like a pinball game than driving to a incident.

These large ice ruts are not very forgiving, and can cause apparatus to slide from side to side quite easily.

Apparatus operators must be very cautious of these situations, and move slowly down the streets. It doesn’t take much to do a lot of damage when your apparatus is sliding from side to side on a tight street.

While making an attempt to get down the street, the operator and officer need to function as a team watching both sides of the rig and the road. As well, they need to be thinking of a plan b and possibly plan, c, d and e.

In the event that you find conditions that prevent you from using your planned route of travel, it is imperative that you notify command and other responding apparatus of your delay and limited or blocked access.

This is important so that other companies know that their running routes may be changing, as well as their job assignments, and that companies will likely be delayed in their response.

THE TRUCK COMPANY

From a truck company perspective, the challenges don’t stop with just getting to the call.

Once you arrive, placement becomes a test of the operator’s knowledge and capabilities.

Snow and ruts, as well as vehicles, will provide for very few options to get your truck set and in service.

Again, a slow and methodical approach will speed the operations in the end by getting the truck set right the first time.

Because of the vehicles and the piles of snow, you may not be able to do anything but pull straight down the road. Not being able to angle the apparatus for best aerial operations will obviously limit your ability to function as effectively as you normally would.

You should also be looking at where your outriggers and jacks will fall. Snow, ice and vehicles will again be the major complication.

Having some shovels as well as rock salt may be helpful in clearing out an area for your ground pads, jack and outriggers. Having them on a clear or solid area will help prevent the vehicle from shifting during operations.

THE ENGINE COMPANY

The engine company will run into many of the same issues on approach, but must also keep in mind the complications facing the truck company.

Engine operators should position in a way that gives the truck the best advantage to get the aerial in service on the building.

Remember, we can always extend lines but we can’t extend ladders.

At larger incidents, or anywhere water is running and our hose lines are in that running water, there could be issues with them freezing to the ground. Watch out for this and try to keep the lines clear of runoff water as much as possible.

Having a good relationship, or an agreement, with your public works department can be huge in situations like this. Their ability to provide salt or plow, may make a major difference in your operations.

Water flowing and freezing on the surfaces on which it collects is a major issue. The ground obviously will become quite slippery, but don’t forget, the impact the ice will have on power lines, trees and structures.

If we are operating for long periods of time with master streams, we need to monitor the effect of ice buildup on our surroundings and be cognizant of the collapse potential in structures and aerial apparatus, as well as utility line and tree limb failure.

Having any of these things collapse on a call could have catastrophic consequences.

So what happens if we can’t get apparatus down a snow covered street?

As mentioned before, having a good relationship or agreement with the public works department is very important. Hopefully they will respond and help clear the area.

However, there are streets that the plows might not be able to access because of the size of the plow or street, or because of piles of snow in the roadway that might require front end loaders to move. As well, there may be cars parked away from the curbs and at strange angles that could prevent FD or public works access to the street.

Departments should be thinking pro-actively in how they will address these situations. There are certainly many ways to overcome these challenges, so I will just explain some things our department has put into play to help gain access to these types of streets.

Keep in mind though that no matter what you do, it’s going to require a lot more physical exertion to make it happen. Having additional units on the way to provide more manpower is a smart move as first in crews will be working very hard to get to the incident long before firefighting operations begin.

Our department has a pick-up truck with a utility body and a plow that we can staff with extra personnel during significant winter storms. This unit is used to plow out the fire stations and responds on EMS and fire calls to assist in plowing access to incident locations.

It also carries two small snow blowers and some shovels to help remove snow from around hydrants and to clear paths for EMS and firefighting operations.

When the situation is more complicated, the department also owns two snowmobiles which can be staffed with two firefighters each, and then placed in service throughout the city.

These snowmobile crews will also respond to EMS and fire incidents to assist with access. Each snowmobile will pull a sled that can be used for crew access, patient movement and hose line advancement.

In many cases the snowmobiles can quickly maneuver through the streets and gain access in a more efficient manor than the apparatus.

For EMS responses, the crews can assist in getting EMS personnel quickly into scenes and then assist in patient movement back to awaiting EMS units at remote locations.

It’s not the best case scenario, but it certainly beats having to carry patients for long distances and roll the dice on potential injuries from falls while doing so.

When responding to fire incidents, the snowmobile crew can quickly arrive and provide size up information to command officers which helps them manage resources more effectively.

When apparatus cannot make access to a street or location the snowmobile crew can assist in getting firefighters and equipment to the scene.

Having the sleds attached to the snowmobile allows firefighters to place the high-rise packs on the sled with along with hand tools and have them quickly brought to the scene.

As well we have the ability to attach a gated 3-inch supply line to the snowmobile so that it can be stretched down the street or sidewalk or over yards or parking lots to the incident scene.

Having this set up allows firefighters to quickly get an attack line in place and operating with the ability to add a second line.

Each high-rise packs is made up of a 100’ section of 2” line. One pack is set up as the supply section with appropriate adaptors to make connections to standpipes and the other as the attack section with a single breakaway nozzle.

Once the line has been stretched and the equipment is in place the snowmobile crew can return to assist the truck company by placing hand tools and saws in the sled and by attaching ladders to the snowmobile and dragging them to the scene.

Again, these are not the best case scenarios, but when dealing with adverse conditions, they may be just enough to make a huge difference in the outcome of an operation.

As I said, I am sure there are many other ways to deal with these situations, these are just a few of the ideas we have developed for our district. Each area will have its own best practices for dealing with situations specific to that location.

Slowing down and thinking these situations through will definitely improve the efficiency of your operations in the long run.

Incidents and severe weather will always throw us curve balls, so we need to able to look at each situation and quickly adapt to them.

Remember the saying that Andy Fredricks used to say.... “When the trash man comes around the corner and sees trash all down the street he doesn’t start screaming, he just goes and picks up the trash.”

Our job is no different, the public expects us to be able to overcome adversity and carry out our mission no matter how difficult the circumstances.

Take the time to look at potential weather related issues and develop plans that streamline your operations when these storms inevitably hit your area.