Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Firefighting in the Far North

Hello Everyone,
Ok well lets talk about firefighting in a resourse limited community. A few years ago several houses burned down due to the fact there was no firefighting equiptment in town other than the occasional fire extingisher. Since then the municpality has aquired a pumper firetruck. This truck is available for use during about 3 months in the summer. It can't be used in the winter as even 50 feet of hose is useless in temps below -30, the water starts to freeze in the hose and clogs the nozzle in short order. Also, since there are no fire hydrants or in ground water avaiable its capacity is limited. Unfortunately due to the age of the pumper truck (over 30 years old) it cannot be hooked up to the water trucks so it has to syphon its own water.
So what happens in the winter you may ask, the house burns down is the answer. Due to the extreme temperature the fire has a very limited chance of spreading as when the flames try to spread they lose too much temperature to remain alit. Basicly the drill is to evacuate nearby houses cover thier fuel tanks with snow and hope for the best. I don't know if this is techically the proceedure however this according to the locals is the way it happens. In asking I couldn't find out who was in charge of the firetruck, Its in a garage near the hamlet office and no one I talked to seemed to know who has the keys. Here's hoping for a firefree winter.
Take Care,
CG

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good afternoon-- First thing I noticed is that you have changed the word "beginning". Bravo!!

Currently, as I look out my window, the sky is blue, the sun is shining and the snow is gone. The thermometer outside is registering over 50 on the fahrenheit scale - not hard to take in the dead of winter. I hope you are also enjoying some nice weather, sans blizzards and bone chilling temperatures.

Since the non-existence of fire fighting equipment etc, do people not have any kind of insurance to cover their losses? What about other kinds of insurance coverage?

Rosalie