Woodbury Firefighters Respond to Record Number of Emergency Calls Monday

To say it was a busy day for the Woodbury Volunteer Fire Department Monday would be an understatement.

The department responded to a record 42 emergency calls during the torrential rain and flooding that swept through the area Monday. The amount is the most the WVFD has received in a day according to Fire Marshall Janet Morgan.

Many of the calls were requests for cellar pumps, but the department did have a share of larger emergencies as well. The department responded to calls for a structure fire in Southbury, a car swept off the road into a river and a home evacuation due to quickly rising waters.

According to Morgan the firefighters got their first call at 0:11 hours and the last unit cleared at 21:22 hours, making for what she called a, “long, long exhausting day.”

The WVFD as a rule does not usually perform cellar pump outs.  Normally the department shuts the water off, makes sure there is no appliance's in danger and then leaves it up to the homeowner to get in touch with their insurance company. Monday though, was not your average broken pipe and the department handled the pump outs more extensively.

“In Monday cases the emergencies were true urgent situations that the fire department needed to correct,” said Morgan.

Water depths in the basements ranged from 3-4 inches to 5 feet of water according to Marshall.  Once the water was to a level that the homeowner could control with their own sump pumps the fire department took their pumps and moved on to the next home on the list.   The fire department owns four electric pumps and two gas-powered pumps all of which were in use Monday.

It was a long list, and a long day, but Morgan said the department was able to get to all calls and that the WVFD thanks each and every homeowner for their patience and understanding.

“The firefighters did their best to get to each call as quickly as possible prioritizing each one as the depth and proximity to electrical appliances,” said Morgan. “Most homeowners were extremely grateful for the help.”