Brutal cold days in January are the worst time of the year to be a firefighter, said one Springfield fire official.
SPRINGFIELD – The freezing cold and relentless winds of the last few days made for the act of going outside an adventure, especially for area firefighters who in recent days have had to battle the elements at the same time they’ve been called out to fight fires.
“Those are the days to be a firefighter,” said Dennis Leger, aide to Springfield Fire Commission Joseph Conant.
In recent days, firefighters have had to respond to serious fires in Springfield, Agawam and Blandford.
A home in Forest Park was destroyed and one person killed in Springfield early Wednesday.
In the Springfield fire at 67 Euclid Ave., fire officials are still awaiting the results of the autopsy before releasing the victim’s identity, said Dennis Leger, aide to Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant.
Results may not be available until next week.
The fire appears accidental, but the exact cause has not been determined.
Leger said the conditions at the fire were brutal. Not only were temperatures hovering around zero, but the wind caused the fire to spread while at the same time beating on firefighters.
“The wind definitely played a role in the rapid growth of that fire,” he said.
“They did a good job over there,” he said.
Investigators continue to probe a basement fire that displaced two adults and a child from a ranch-style home on Faymore Drive Thursday morning.
In Agawam, no injuries were reported in a blaze at 51 Faymore Drive just before 11 a.m.
Lt. Ken Sagendorph said the homeowner discovered the blaze and called the fire department. A child was also home at the time. “Everybody got out OK,” he said.
Fire damage was mostly confined to the basement, and there is smoke and water damage throughout the rest of the house.
The fire was put out relatively quickly despite the frigid temperatures, Sagendorph said, “The weather is always a factor when it is this cold out. When the water freezes on the ground it becomes very treacherous and slippery. It become very dangerous,” he said.
In Blandford, firefighters were called to fire on Russell Stage Road Thursday at 6:30 a.m. that destroyed a building that had recently been converted into a residential unit. The building was unoccupied and no one was hurt.
Leger said sub-freezing days in January are among the worst times of the year to be a firefighters. The cold makes everything difficult.
“Everything gets so cold that it hurts,” he said. “When it’s hot (in the summer), it’s uncomfortable. But when it’s cold, it hurts.”
Hose nozzles freeze up, hoses stiffen and become hard to move, equipment can break, and in no time at all, everything, firefighters included, gets covered with a layer of ice. The ground becomes a skating rink and firefighters have to move slower to avoid falling, he said.
Overnight temperatures fell to single digits throughout the Connecticut River Valley and did not rise that much during the day.
Westover Air Force Reserve Base in Chicopee recorded a low of zero at 4 a.m. The high for the day was 20 degrees at 4 p.m.
At Barnes Airport in Westfield, the low was 3 degrees at 5 a.m., while the high was 18 at 3 p.m. Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks recorded a low of 2 degrees at 1 a.m. and a high of 19 degrees at 1 p.m.
The lowest temperature recorded was at Orange Municipal Airport in Orange, where the low temperature was minus 4 degrees at 8 a.m. The high for the day was 5 degrees at 3 p.m. The low temperatures did not come close to a record low for the day. That was set in 1961 when Bradley recorded minus 19 degrees.
The National Weather Service put out a wind chill advisory for much of Western Massachusetts from 7 p.m. Thursday through 11 a.m. Friday.
Temperatures during that time will range between minus 3 degrees and 9 degrees, but winds of 5 to 10 miles per hour will push the wind chill to as low as minus 19 degrees.
People are advised to dress in layers and to wear hats and gloves when outside.
The high temperature on Friday is expected to be around 15 degrees, but it may warm up, albeit slightly, over the weekend. Saturday is expected to be around 28 degrees while Sunday will be around 21 degrees. There is a chance of snow each day.
The freezing temperatures have led to many cases of freezing pipes.
Adriano Punis, owner of Associated Plumbing and Heating in East Longmeadow, said he has been inundated with calls for pipe freeze-ups and failed heating systems for three or four weeks now.
Such calls are not unusual during the winter, Punis said, adding that what is unusual is that the severity of the cold is continuing as February approaches.
“We are going into February and it’s still super cold,” Punis said. “It seems like the cold that should be ebbing a bit is getting even colder.”
Punis recommends that those who are worried about pipe freeze-ups leave their taps trickling overnight. “That definitely does work,” he said.
Those who are leaving their homes for extended periods of time during extremely cold weather may also want to consider shutting off their water and draining their systems. “Just in case something happens,” he said.
Punis said people should also monitor little-used fixtures, for example, those in a basement bathroom. Problems in such areas may not manifest themselves until the weather eases and ice-damaged pipes thaw.
Jason Duda, of Boulanger Plumbing in Easthampton, has suggested that people open cabinet doors under the kitchen or bathroom sinks to let in ambient heat. If the air circulates, the pipes are less likely to freeze. He said if people know they have a problem with pipes, they can have a plumber wrap pipes in heat tape.
Alan Starzyk, water superintendent in Chicopee, said Thursday the department has been dealing with an unusually high number of residential water pipe supply line freeze-ups this month.
“If there is a freeze-up within the supply pipe for service (up to the valve on the interior of the residence) we dispatch crews,” Starzyk said. Water Department crews use steam or electric current to thaw out the service lines, he said.
Reporter George Graham contributed to this report.