Tales From the Station

Electrical Madness

Did you miss me? I’m back with some stories of one of the great institutions here in Akwesasne: The Hogansburg-Akwesasne Volunteer Fire Department. The rules are the same, no names mentioned and all parties are innocent until proven hilarious.

Ten years ago this week we were neck deep in fire calls due to a freak ice storm that lasted for five days. Our previous record for the number of calls in one month was 33. On January 5, 1998 we answered 35 alarms in a 24 hour period. The following day would have been another record breaker if the phone and electric lines hadn’t been taken out by falling tree limbs.

We were all pretty much living at the fire station. We were doing two things, answering alarms and eating. I kid you not, we had food by the ton. People would bring food over to cook since the power was out and their freezers were down. Police, EMS, linesmen, volunteers and bored community members stopped in at the station to visit, warm up and eat. The calls slowed down as CO monitors were dispersed, volunteers began going door to door checking on residents and this community united and stood together for the common good.

One thing we weren’t doing is taking a shower. Fighting fires, not showering and living in close quarters to each other could only last so long. After a couple days we had to make arrangements to use the showers at one of the truck stops. It did have the advantage of driving away well meaning but somewhat annoying community members who took to hanging out at the station during the disaster.

We had the luxury of a large generator and we had local electricians hook it up. The lights came back on, the boiler started and things appeared to be working normally. We were taking a break and going over the equipment when the radio came to life with the familiar “Stand by Hogansburg Akwesasne, Fire.” We grabbed our gear and hopped in the trucks when the siren started and went WHHHHHHHHRRRRRR…..and the generator sputtered, shuttered and died. It was strong enough for everything we had hooked up until the 3 phase siren activated and killed the generator.

Somewhere along the line another generator was sequestered and showed up at the station, but there wasn’t an electrician to be found. They were quite busy that week and were probably disgruntled to the point that you took your chances by disturbing them. I didn’t witness this but I heard the story enough times. One of our firefighters got impatient and decided to hook the generator up himself. You know the adage “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”? Well, IT IS! Trust me on this.

Captain Electro, his nickname forever after, hooked up the generator to the best of his ability and fired it up. This shouldn’t have been a problem since he had once worked at NASA. He had been, believe it or not, a rocket scientist. This shouldn’t have been a problem, but it was.

Picture the scene, I’m out on a call in the fire truck as part of a crew when the radio crackles “Engine 91 report to a fire at your station.” I forget what we were doing at the time but I clearly remember hightailing it back to the station with lights and sirens going. When there’s a fire at a member’s residence the response is impressive. When there’s a call at your station the response is unbelievable. We had other departments there and a parking lot full of responder’s vehicles.

What we found was every light and every electronic device in the 120 volt range either a smoking wreck or blown up. This included our scanner, all the televisions, radios and appliances that were making life bearable during our continuous response. Luckily the important stuff like the PA system, emergency radios, sirens and air system were fine. We found one firefighter with his head hung low shuffling around the fire station apologizing to the walls, floors and ceilings.

Somehow word got out what happened and the next thing you know the community steps up and we become a depository for old TV’s and radios. It is amazing when you’re in that kind of position to be able to take your pick of really good stuff being offered. We took the biggest TV, a 27” with working remote, a VCR, radio and a microwave and tried to get back to normal. Everything else went into the community dumpster. Our satellite card was still good and a new receiver brought news back to the station.

When we were doing the paperwork for our FEMA distributions I explained to the FEMA representative what happened. When she stopped laughing she said enter “Power Surge” on the reason for property replacement. When we received our funds we went out on a shopping spree and bought three new televisions to replace the three smoking wrecks that had been our old TV’s. One smart thing I did was bought the same make so all three TV’s used the same remote control. Its ten years later and those TV’s are still working fine, a gift from one of the worst disasters ever visited upon this community.