The Wakefield Fire Department responded to 327 emergency incidents during the month of May 2006 including 65 Box Alarms and 262 Still Alarms, a total much higher than the average monthly responses.
While April was an unusually dry month, May was an abnormally wet month, with the town receiving some 15 inches of rain in the period May 12 – 23rd. The heavy rains kept the fire department and all town departments very busy in responding to flooded streets and flooded basements. The incident response totals listed above for the fire department do not include some 307 responses to assist residents pumping out flooded basements, shutting off utilities, etc. Frankly, we were just too busy to record each and every response made during this period!
The flooding was so severe that both Middlesex and Essex counties were declared a disaster area by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which now opens the door the for town and individual residents to apply for federal assistance.
The fire department responded to 9 mutual aid requests during April, including Melrose (3), Reading (1), Lynnfield (3), Lynn (1), and Saugus (1). The department received mutual aid on 3 occasions from Stoneham (2) and Lynnfield (1).
Training activities during May included:
- Review of the aerial ladder pipe operations
- Review of the drafting procedure – pumping from lakes, streams, pools, etc.
- An opportunity to tour a new renovated commercial building at 360 Audubon Rd
The department also completed our annual testing of all hose during the month of May and hosted several Kindergarten / pre-school groups who visited our stations during the month.
