Menlo Park Fire Bracing for Wild Weather: 'We Are Storm Ready!'

MENLO PARK, CA — The Fire District has brought in additional personnel and added emergency response units in preparation for today's winter storm event.

The Districts Emergency Command and Control Center is ready to go but will remain unstaffed unless needed.

The Districts Water Rescue Team and Watercraft are loaded and ready for response in the District, regionally or Statewide.

Fire Chief Schapelhouman said "we encourage people to call 9-11 if you feel something appears to be unsafe or hazardous such as downed or arching electrical lines, leaning trees, flooding inside homes or buildings or outside affecting road safety. If your power goes off and you smell something burning, please call us. We have additional personnel and emergency units available to check out any emergency that the public is either concerned about or feels threatened by" he said.

The Fire District was well prepared for Sunday's storm event with additional units and personnel on patrol. Emergency Call volume was above normal but never reached even a serious level.

The District received a number of tree and power line emergency incidents but quickly abated most by cutting up trees and removing them from roads or driveways and most downed lines were confirmed to be cable or telephone, but some were not and crews stood bye until PG&E arrived.

Today's storm finds the ground saturated and the storm coupled with weekday traffic.

"I'm concerned about the timing of the main storm event coupled with heavy traffic later today. Driving around Sunday was like nothing I've seen in years, few people were on the roadways or out and about, it was actually very pleasant, but we don't anticipate that today" the Fire Chief said.

The Fire District provides fire and emergency services to the Town of Atherton, Cities of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, Unincorporated San Mateo County and on contract to the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC).

— SUBMITTED FOR PUBLICATION BY: Menlo Park Fire Protection District