ELMA FIRE COMPANY STORM RESPONSE

On Thursday October 12th, a snowstorm struck the Town Of Elma along with the rest of Western New York, leaving its path of destruction. The storm was the source of many downed trees and power lines which in turn caused massive power outages.  Some residents were without power up to 72 hours or more. The long power outage led to many other problems such as; the inability to utilize a sump pump when large quantities of water from the snow and the melting of the snow were flooding the basements, the failing of medical equipment that runs off a house electrical outlet, the misuse of a generator causing CO poisoning, and the failure of the refrigerator causing food to spoil.

First the Elma Fire Company took swift action, by first quickly setting up a command post first at the Elma Fire hall, then command was later switched over to a command post created by the Town of Elma for the entire town at Jamison Road Fire Department. Also, because of the number of requests for help, and due to limited manpower per town, different fire companies were called in from all over the state of New York. In this time frame, Elma hosted Hilton Fire, Chili Fire, and some closer Departments such as West Falls Fire. During the period of about six days, the Elma Fire Company responded to roughly two-hundred Fire and Assistance calls and nearly a dozen EMS and EMS related assistance calls.