Members of Harris Hill Fire Company spent much of Saturday night waiting for New York State Electric and Gas to arrive at the scene of downed power lines, which had caused a fire that destroyed the shed and its contents at a David Road home.
According to Harris Hill Chief Nick Radlich, an emergency call reporting that power lines had been knocked down due to the weather was received at about 6:45 p.m.
“It caused a shed to go up in flames, which had gasoline and an [all-terrain vehicle] in it, which caused pine trees surrounding the house to go up,” Radlich said. “We were there to protect the home to exposure due to the heat coming off the pine trees and the shed.”
Radlich said the shed and its contents were a total loss, but firefighters were able to protect the home from being damaged. No nearby homes were damaged.
What really was upsetting Radlich, however, was that the fire company had to remain onsite for four hours for NYSEG to send a team to address the live power lines that were a threat to the subdivision.
“The reason they gave us was they were helping out crews in Rochester,” he said.
Because the fire company was waiting by the power lines all evening, it had to ask Main-Transit Fire Department to assist by taking Harris Hill’s calls. Luckily, no other emergency calls were received.
Residents of David Road were told to stay inside while the neighborhood waited for the utility company to send a crew.
“We were unable to leave the scene because it was a hazard,” Radlich said.
The fire chief questioned why NYSEG didn’t contact another utility company to send a crew to address the issue.
“We called for another power company after the shed caught fire because of NYSEG’s lack of response,” he said. “Why are they depleting all of their resources from Buffalo?
“We understand that they have a job to do, but when there is an emergency, so do we.”
The Bee reached out to NYSEG for comment, but there was no response as of press time.