West Conshohocken Pitches In To Dig Out Before Next Round Of Snow Hits
By Todd Quinones
WEST CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa., (CBS) -- The thought is better to dig now instead of later when there is a fire and no time to waste.
"[If a] fire happens and you can't find a fire hydrant, you don't want to have anyone's house burn up because you can't find a fire hydrant," West Conshohocken Asst. Supervisor of The Department of Public Works Robert Dronitsky said.
Volunteers, firefighters and people in the West Conshohocken Department of Public Works spent their Monday night in the bitter cold.
Their mission was to dig out the roughly 50 fire hydrants in the borough.
Several of them were buried in deep ice crusted snow banks left over by all the plow trucks pushing snow off the roads.
"I'm right at the top of the street and if there was a fire at my house, I would want the best way to get to a fire hydrant to be cleared as possible as quickly as possible, it could save a life," volunteer Sarah McTamney said.
Like we saw in an early Monday morning house fire in Bala Cynwyd, this winter weather can make firefighters' jobs that much more difficult.
Hoses were freezing up and the ice covered ground made for slippery footing.
The West Conshohocken Fire Department wanted to make sure if they respond to a fire the closet hydrant is available when they need it.
"The options in that case find another one that's down the block that's not buried. Hopefully you can get to that one," West Conshohocken Asst. Fire Chief David Frankenfield said. "Otherwise would have to go to another one which is about 600 feet away."
As a token of appreciation for their hard work the owner of Flanigan's Boathouse provided dinner free of charge for everyone who helped.
By Monday night the volunteers and firefighters were successful in digging out all of the fire hydrants in West Conshohocken.
