| At approximately 5pm on Tuesday May 15th the Town of Somers and the surrounding areas were hit with a powerful but rare storm. The Somers VFD was almost immediately inundated with emergency calls. During the period from the afternoon of Tuesday May 15th to Friday May 18th the Somers VFD responded to 70 alarms in our district. Calls ranged from medicals, wires down, trees through houses, structure fires, car accidents, fire alarms, and carbon monoxide incidents. The members of the SVFD worked diligently and quickly to ensure that all 911 calls went answered, even at times when there were multiple calls at the same time stretching our resources thin. At one point during the storm Rescue 20 had power lines fall on it while it was operating at a car accident. This stresses the importance of staying home in inclement weather.
A breakdown of the calls is as follows:
EMS- 24
MVA's- 4
Commercial Alarms- 4
Investigations- 8
Reported Structure Fires- 7
Residential Alarms- 2
Carbon Monoxide Alarms- 9
Wires down- 10
Members of the SVFD also assisted the public in many other ways that did not have an emergency run assigned to it. This included welfare checks, checking on house damage, sinkhole reports, assisting utility and police crews, etc.
Many of the Carbon Monoxide alarms that the SVFD responded to were caused by generators running too close to the house. This is a serious hazards as carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas that can kill you.
The SVFD responded to 7 reported structure fires. Many were small fires that were easily contained due to power problems inside houses. One went to a 10-75 which required the response of mutual aid from surrounding departments and caused significant damage to a home in Shenorock. Approximatley 23 condos in Heritage Hills along with numerous other buildings in town received damage during the storm.
The National Weather Service declared the weather event in Somers to not be a tornado but in fact a macroburst. According to the NWS A macroburst is more than 2.5 miles in diameter and can produce winds as high as strong as a tornado.
Photo Credit: Somers VFD members, Weatherman Gianotts |
