Local fire departments can be found responding to a variety of incidents during heavy rainfall.

By Charly SHELTON

The fire department is responsible for fighting fires year round, but in a storm, the responsibilities increase. From swift water rescues to combatting blazes during a storm, the fire department receives a lot of calls. Glendale Fire Chief Bill Lynch said most of the calls that GFD responds to during a storm are medical in nature.

“During the recent storm activity [last Friday], the call volume increased by 52%. The increased call volume included various hazard investigations, traffic collisions, fire alarms, trees and wires down, as well as flooding incidents,” Lynch said.

The GFD responded to over 19,400 emergencies in 2016, including a variety of rescue incidents, he said. Firefighters are trained to be able to handle everything from hazardous material spills to swift water rescues to search and rescue missions, civil disturbances, train wrecks, floods, earthquakes and more.

With massive storms behind us and more rain on the way Sunday GFD and LA County Fire are preparing with additional training and increasing the amount of resources at high-risk areas.

“When we anticipate heavy rains, our chiefs decide at the staff meeting if they’re going to add additional resources for that day,” said Inspector Gustavo Medina, LA County Fire. “Whether it’s for 24 hours or 12 hours [it depends] on what they get back from the weather forecast. So we add additional equipment, additional firefighter personnel at strategic areas within the county.”

California Task Force 2 ¬– Urban Search and Rescue team for LA County Fire – is currently working in Northern California to aid the residents who have been flooded out by the recent storms. They work and train here in LA and then ship out to wherever needs assistance, as they did in 2011 to help the survivors of the earthquake and tsunami in Ofunato, Japan.

When it comes to the fire department, though, the first thought is always to fighting fires. And in the rain, that can be a little more tricky than one might think.

“Fighting fire in the rain can create some additional challenges, but firefighters are accustomed to working in adverse conditions, including inclement weather,” Lynch said. “Glendale Fire Dept. personnel receives extensive training in a variety of areas and continues to train and hones its skills on a daily basis.”

  Charly Shelton