On February 2nd, local celebrity groundhog Octorara Orphie predicted spring was right around the corner.  Only 8 days later, the Solanco area was pounded by it's second major snowstorm of February.  This time, close to 20 inches of snow fell and winds in excess of 30 mph blew, creating blizzard conditions and making many, many Southern End roadways impassable and closed with extreme drifts. 

As the storm progressed, all of the local fire companies were out on the street handling emergency calls.  Lancaster County Communications was sending the fire company to all EMS responses due to the difficult road conditions.  This increased the call load for all of the volunteer fire companies in the county. 

Quarryville was no different, handling 16 calls during the storm (so far), including 7 medical assists.  These assists ranged from using our four-wheel drive vehicles to get to residents having medical emergencies, to carrying victims from their houses to awaiting amubulances.  We also helped clear snow from driveways and entrances to help EMS access patients.

The other calls included a working building fire assist to the Refton Community Fire Company (5-9) in which Tanker 5-7 was the nurse tanker in the water supply, sending over 73,000 gallons of water to the scene.  We also handled several utility/wires calls, accidents and fire police calls. 

As of this post (2/11/10) there are still many roadways closed in the district, so we will undoubtedly spend more time out assisting where needed.  As posted before, please be sure to clear your house number sign, and if you have a fire hydrant close by, clear it out also.

**** Update ****

With the week complete, the Fire Chief has figured up the totals for the storm.  The Company responded to 24 incidents, logging 25 hours in service.  There were 293 total members responding, providing 375 man-hours of volunteer service.  This does not include the time spent readying the apparatus, clearing the apparatus bays and station of snow, crew stand-bys or hydrant shoveling.  Thanks to all of the members that helped out in some way.