It was bell-to-bell for the Manhattan Fire Department during Wednesday’s wind storm.
The MFD responded to 63 calls Wednesday. The daily number is typically seven or eight, according to Deputy Fire Chief Ryan Almes.
The immediacy and intensity of yesterday’s storm were peculiar, Almes said. “We’ve been through a lot of severe weather events,” he said, “but we’ve never dealt with such strong, sustained winds. This was something entirely different.”
Almes said things were happening so fast yesterday that, rather than driving back to the station after a call, fire crews were finding space to park the equipment and await the next call.
“When that smoke rolled in,” Almes said, “it smelled like everything was on fire. The smoke made it very hard to see, and having to re-route around entire roads blocked by branches and debris blowing all around made things so slow... it was definitely surreal.”
The department was deluged with reports of structure fires all evening, but crews were unable to report a single confirmed structure fire. The only fires MFD responded to were trees and vegetation ignited by downed power lines.
Due to the high call volume, the department instituted the Adaptive Response Plan for several hours in the late afternoon. The plan prioritizes all calls based on the hazard and location, lowers the number of units responding to each call for service, and stops our emergency medical first response program.
At the height of the event, MFD had 10 apparatus, three battalion chiefs, and 41 personnel assisting with responses - double the typically scheduled personnel.