Blizzard 2013: ‘It’s Been Epic’

It’s 11:39 p.m. Saturday in the downstairs lounge at Derby Storm Ambulance Corps on Olivia Street and four guys fueled by pork chops and cola are sitting around a cockeyed wooden table listening to Chief David Lenart hold court.

Con Air,” starring Nicholas Cage’s mullet, plays on a big-screen television while a fifth member lies on a couch half awake. A younger Storms volunteer readies a mop for the linoleum.

You know when you’re a little kid and you have a sleep over? At first it’s like that,” Lenart said. At first, the activity starts, you’re excited, you play football, you’re pulling pranks. Then, you know, then it starts to feel like work, like you have to talk to people. Then it’s time for breakfast.”

By noon on the second day there’s a fight or two, he said. Eventually everyone’s friends again.

Lenart’s talking about how being on storm duty — that is, manning a fire department or ambulance corps during a winter storm.

Storm Ambulance was staffed with 16 people from early Friday.

They were extremely busy, with almost non-stop calls from roughly 10:30 p.m. Friday night until 10:30 p.m. Saturday.

The height of the Blizzard of 2013 was late Friday night into early Saturday morning, when police cars, ambulances, fire trucks and snow plows became stranded on lower Valley roads and on Route 8. 

The blizzard dumped around three feet of snow on the region in less than a day.

At one point Friday night/Saturday morning Derby officials were contacting the National Guard to help rescue a motorist suffering an asthma attack on snow-clogged Route 8. However, the Guard, who are in Stratford, were not needed as Derby Storm plucked the patient from the highway using a Polaris Ranger, a six-wheel off road vehicle.

The Ranger was in constant use Friday and Saturday, transporting patients to the hospital, transporting staff to and from Griffin Hospital and helping emergency crews access homes on roads that had not been plowed.

It also carried Storm members to Ansonia and Shelton when additional manpower was needed to carry patients through deep snow.

Polaris Ranger or not, the Blizzard of 2013 has been grueling work for volunteer firefighters, ambulance, EMS personnel and police — not to mention plow truck drivers.

The towns were not able to clear roads quickly because of the three feet of snow. Smaller plow trucks were useless, and the lower Valley doesn’t have enough large-sized trucks to get the job done. Pay loaders and front-end loaders were called in, but they work slowly. 

The combination meant that emergency crews had to hike through thigh-high snow to check out patients. Routine medical calls became 30-minute ordeals. 

Lenart said one call during the blizzard on Paugassett Road required a 60-yard trek through the snow.

They had to hoof it in a sizable distance,” Lenart said.

Photo: Eugene DriscollDerby — like neighboring towns — had a ton of calls regarding carbon monoxide alarms. Lenart attributed this to newer furnaces that vent out the sides of homes, as opposed to roof vents. The side vents were buried in snow, causing furnaces to misfire.

Luckily, there were no serious injuries from those carbon monoxide alarms. 

It’s been epic,” Lenart said.

Just before midnight Saturday, storm duty entered a new phase for the volunteers — exhaustion.

You could see it on their faces.

Eye lids hung heavy. Their cheeks were raw from wind burn. Their speech was a bit slower than normal. Their legs burned from the snow workout. 

Conversation shifted amicably from the old movie theater on Pershing Drive where Lenart saw Ghostbusters,” to graphic novels, to politics, to family vacations.

Brian Coppola received high praise for his pork chops he made everyone for dinner. He apparently used a recipe that infused some Kentucky Fried Chicken goodness. 

Then there was Brian Mezzapelle. He drove the Polaris Ranger countless times after arriving at Derby Storm Ambulance Friday.

How many hours had he been there as of 11:39 p.m. Saturday?

In 14 minutes it will be 48,” he said. I have been awake for 41.”

How many calls had he responded to?

I have no idea,” he said, his voice flat. I couldn’t tell you.”

Storm duty was scheduled continue through 12 p.m. Sunday, when members were expected to travel Derby digging out buried fire hydrants.

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