Member of an Erie County, Pa. fire department spent much of the region’s historic Thanksgiving snowstorm answering emergency calls and opening their station as a warming shelter for stranded out-of-town visitors.
The National Weather Service said snow accumulation, which persisted through Thanksgiving weekend, and where the city of Erie received a staggering 22.6 inches of snow the day after the holiday — a record — totaled about 42.5 inches when all was said and done.
As the wet, lake-effect snow settled on the station's roof, the chief of Fairfield Hose, the volunteer fire station in Harborcreek Township in question, noticed last week the roof was beginning to sag; he reportedly nearly hit his head from a sprinkler on the ceiling in the department's social club.
The snow buildup was collecting on the department's roof to buckle. Fearing a roof collapse, Fire Chief Jim Hawryliw and others sounded the alarm for help.
Dozens of firefighters from around Erie County, sheriff's deputies, members of the Pennsylvania National Guard and the U.S. Coast Guard, local contractors and others swarmed to the station on Dec. 5 to help avert a disaster.
About four hours later, roughly 100 tons of snow were shoveled off the massive roof, and everyone who came to help made it off the roof safely.
"The roof actually recoiled back to normal," Hawryliw told the Erie Times-News the following morning. "There is structure damage. We're getting it identified today."
Hawryliw noted that the social club's roof was sagging by as much as 12 inches when a sprinkler head fell last Thursday morning. He looked up to assess the situation and explained that clearing the snow from the roof was a matter of weighing risks against benefits.
"Obviously my number one concern was the safety of every single person on the roof. I did not want to put anyone on the roof, but at the end of the day, I knew if I didn't clear it, the firehouse could have been destroyed," he said. "It was an amazing experience. Not a good experience, but an amazing one.”
