June 2012 – North American derecho – Wikipedia Link // Click here.
— Original press release below —
Friday evening was turning out to be an average summer evening at Warrenton Fire. The normal crew was on duty and settling in for the evening shift. The SDO and staff were aware of the possibility for severe storms in the mid to late evening. Which were expected to arrive around 9pm. As reports from western counties started coming in, on just how devastating the weather was. We activated a full staff recall. Boosting the normal 8 staff to 26 and fully staffing the station. Over the next 11 hours we were called to multiple types of incidents. Fortunately no injuries were reported during any of the storm related incidents. Below is a breakdown of incidents covered during this period.
- Power line down: 11
- Motor Vehicle Collision: 2
- EMS: 2 *both unrelated to storm
- Dispatched-Cancelled: 4
- Building Collapse: 2 *No injuries; 1 incident 3 displaced
- Fire Alarms: 4
- Smoke Inside Structure: 2
- Good Intent: 1
- Outside Fire: 3
Total: 31
The biggest battle crews faced while responding to incidents were the downed trees and power lines blocking most to all of the roads in the early part of the event. Crews worked throughout the evening and early morning clearing paths within the service area. Areas that were unable to be cleared were marked and shutdown until VDOT could bring in heavy equipment. Units cleared the last incident at 9:30am on 6/30.
Units staffed for the assignments: Chief-1, AC1, M1-2, E1, W1, X1, K1, R1, T1
