| The "Washington Post" reports that this past Mother's Day, Calvert County was slammed with 7 inches of rain. With winds gusting at 60 mph and the several inches of rain falling, local fire departments knew it would be a long night and following day and night. In the early evening hours, calls began flooding 911 Communications throughout the county for the normal trees down, trees on houses, flooding conditions, wires down, etc. However, several Box Alarms were also answered including a tree on the house with energized wires, a house fire in St. Leonard , a basement fire in Chesapeake Beach , and a house collapse with two people trapped.
At 2205 hours on Mother's Day, Chief 6, Brush 6, and Engine 61 were answering calls in the Huntingtown area. Several additional crews were in quarters when the "house collapse with two people trapped" was dispatched in the 7400 block of B Street bringing Chief 6B, Chief 6C, Engine 62, Squad 6, Tanker 6, and Ambulance 69. Units arrived to find a three-story house under construction that was blown off its foundation collapsing onto a neighboring house. Both houses completely collapsed to the ground trapping two people inside. Crews worked diligently for two hours on the scene before finally successfully removing the victims who miraculously suffered minor injuries. In addition, DC Fire's Collapse Team was dispatched and worked on the scene for the final 30 minutes of the incident.
During this long drawn-out storm, the Huntingtown Volunteers have answered 50 + calls for service with no sleep in the past two days. In addition, every single piece of apparatus has been fully manned and at some points on the street simultaneously including Engine 61, Engine 62, Squad 6, Tanker 6, Brush 6, Ambulance 68, Ambulance 69, Command 6 and Utility 6. Many thanks to the dozens of members for their assistance and also to the Ladies Auxiliary President, Lori Kerns for ensuring the members were fed throughout this time. |
