Blackout

[backdraft663]

Well who all here is affected by the blackout, seems like its spreading,m well im a dummy if, it it was affecting you, you wouldnt be replying

[hwoods]

Can you say "Onan"?? :p Stay Safe....

[mcleoud151]

Well, pretty crazy though. Glad I'm not working in one of those cities....I can just imagine all the alarms going off....:D

[rfcmitch]

What blackout? I didnt know about any blackout... actually yeah I did. Well I am not affected by it... but about 3 minutes up the road is. Glad I am not involved...

Any word on how long? Cause I kinda have a trip planned for Long Island to goto Selden... are they affected. I would think they would be.

[nmfire]

I would advise against getting on the road and going anywhere near any major city. The traffic is bad enough with working traffic lights....

[mdoddsjffhnfc]

New Jersey National Guard is being Mobilized for northern new jersey. Glad Southern New Jersey isn't affected.

[Resq14]

Aside from the crowds in the streets that immediately drew me back to september 2001, this was the other thing that flashed into my head:


Blackout

Original Airdate: May 13, 2002
When New York City suffers a blackout, Sully prophetically warns the more optimistic Davis that people will cause trouble. While Doc and Carlos check on housebound elderly people, their ambulance burns up because Carlos left the engine running. A wealthy old man, Albert Jacobs (FRANK RAITER), offers them a large amount of money to stay with him until his daughter arrives, but the paramedics must leave. Bosco arrests a loitering young man, Latrell Griffith (J.D. JACKSON), and faces a difficult decision when an immigrant shop owner shoots and wounds a teenage shoplifter. Only Latrell, a former medic, can save the victim. A riot ensues after Bosco, Latrell and the shoplifter escape, and nightfall brings more unrest as the nervous cops try to keep the peace. Meanwhile, Yokas and Fred get stranded in a dark elevator when the blackout occurs. Fred has a heart attack before they can be rescued.

Be safe, everyone.

[lutan1]

Heard about this over here in Oz this morning- it sounds huge!:eek:

Does your depatment have response SOP's or similar in place for blackouts?

We automatically respond to ALL calls with rotators, flashers, etc on (Excpet sirens, unless a priority 1 call). What about you guys?

[Engine101]

When a blackout occurs all units go onto radio stand by and usuualy the emergency genorator at the station kicks in

[Adze39]

Contrary to the national news, the entire state of Connecticut did not lose power.

I know Hartford suffered a blackout but then by 5-ish part or all of the city had power back.

My town had a surge but did not lose power, neither did Windsor Locks (where the Airport is). Vernon and South Windsor had power also.

So it seems like the blackout didn't go past Hartford in North Central CT (don't know how Windsor or Bloomfield turned out).

[nmfire]

ISO intentionally shut down many parts of the CT grid to prevent it from getting fried. There is a lot of southern CT out as well but it is spotty. It is coming back bit by bit as they reconfigure.

[rfcmitch]

Sittin here in Cattaraugus County... we didnt get it but 5 or 10 minutes down the road was out. And up a little ways in our own county was out too. We figured it went like this in our area... NYSEG customers had power, like me for example, Niagra Mohawk customers didnt...? Or atleast thats how it was in my area. We never recieved nothing from this, heck if I wouldnt have turned on the ol tv to the news I wouldnt have even known anything about it. So not all of NYS is out either.

[SFDny15]

Had the power out here in Southern NY (about 20 miles from NYC) from about 4:15 to 7:30. The second the power went out, the county fire radio lit up with huge amounts of automatic alarms. There were also confirmed fires at 2 major power plants in the county (Rockland County).

As far as I know, our county is back up and running. Hope everything is well with all people affected.

[AFD368]

Power out here in Albion from 4:15 to 9:00pm. Village 10 miles to the West never lost power. Most of Western NY did though with some pockets who didn't.

[Flochief]

Guess what is going to happen in around 9 months? EMS maturnity calls are going to sky rocket. I feel for all of ya'll up north.
I talked with some of my power plant operators they said the voltage on our lines in Ga spiked with this happen as we are all connected togather on the grid. Luckily breakers somewhere up north opened and protected us further south.

[HFDEXP777]

luckily we dont have any elevators in our district i dont think. we had our power back here about 9:30. hey AFD good thing for you guys that the C.O.B. and the courthouse were already closed for the day;)

[DrParasite]

just for an update on the emergency response in NYC, both FD and EMS are getting slammed with calls. to give you an idea of how bad, they are requesting ambulances from central NJ to respond into NYC to assist with the EMS calls.

[XCAPT1]

rfcmitch

Selden was without power till about 11PM tonight. By 11PM most of the town had power. We had about fifteen runs before 11PM and we're still getting runs every now and then. So far there hasn't been anything major. Hopefully it will stay that way. What brings you to Selden? If you don't mind me asking.

Stay Safe.

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

You know that there was a guy in a power plant up there who said...

"I wonder what would happen if..."

[LadyCapn]

Originally posted by GeorgeWendtCFI
You know that there was a guy in a power plant up there who said...

"I wonder what would happen if..."

I just flicked this switch way back here....................

Power was restored here about midnight or so. Was soooooo happy when the central air kicked back in :D
Actually had a really nice evening playing monopoly and listening to the radio with the kids, something we haven't done for ages. No T.V., no computer, no Gamecube. Pulled out all the camping lights, cooked dinner on the barbeque and had a really nice evening.:)

[ff7134]

Well I got recalled to the station(per SOP) we were out on AFA's and EMS calls. The power went out at 4p and came back on around 12a. And the generator at the station died for about 2 hours...overheated the fan and vents never opened. Like it mattered we were out chassing calls. My wife and son got to enjoy the AC at the station though.

[DaSharkie]

Guess what is going to happen in around 9 months? EMS maturnity calls are going to sky rocket.

Are you kidding? without A/C there is now way anyone was letting their significant other near them. It was about 90 degrees plus in central park nevermind in the buldings where the sun has beating down on them all afternoon.

I was fortunate enought to be heading North from D.C. and Phlly yesterday afternoon after a short little vacation / reasearch trip. South bound was BAD on 95. At least 40 miles backed up from Cross Bronx Expressway all the way down to about half way between New York and Philly. When I say backed up I mean not moving at all, poor bastards.

When I hit Connecticut the traffic slowed and Stamford had some power. I heard on Fox this morning that there may not be juice until the end of the weekend in some parts. I feel for the elderly adn asthmatics who are going to have a lot of problems with this.

[Ltmdepas3280]

We handle a dozen or so calls due to the power outage 50/50 split on fire and ems. Power was back on by 8:15pm last nite.

[Adze39]

Originally posted by GeorgeWendtCFI
You know that there was a guy in a power plant up there who said...

"I wonder what would happen if..."

I thought he said "I wonder what this button does?"

[E229Lt]

Hey Shawn, shed a little "LIGHT" on the subject.

Who's fault? The US power authorities sound like "South Park's, "BLAME CANADA" "

[RspctFrmCalgary]

Our New York Brothers & Sisters Meet the Challenge Again!http://cms.firehouse.com/forums2/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52135

Apparently there were about 20 cases of looting in Ottawa. The Ottawa Paramedic Service also reported a 30 per cent jump in calls in the wake of the power outage with a sizeable number coming from nursing homes, patients on home oxygen and people trapped in elevators. But Pierre Poirier, the service's manager of logistics said there had been no major mishaps by 9:30 p.m. Reports of 2 deaths in Ottawa, one in a fire and one in an "altercation".

The Toronto fire department answered six times the usual number of calls on Thursday night. At one point last night before I went to bed I heard that Toronto Fire Department had already had about 600 calls so far.

Nice to hear from you Artie.

I've been waiting to hear from Shawn too.

Anyone notice our esteemed PM is nowhere to be seen???? LMFAO

[DianeC]

We (Port Jefferson) got power for real at 6:30 this morning....I drove all the way to Melville for work (actually one of the better commutes since no one was on the road) and my building has no power....Apparently, we were on a late opening that turned into a closure...Wish someone would have called me or put it on the radio -- I didn't have to be in until 9:30!! Other places in that area have power...Oh well, it's the perfect day for the beach! :D Ironically, yesterday afternoon we received an e-mail asking us to turn off all electronics that we didn't need and to not be alarmed if the lights in some areas were off since we're part of some LIPA Power Conservation program......So, when the power went off at 4:15, we all laughed for a moment. Then I left, so I have no idea what the scene was after that. It did take me almost 2 hours to get home.:rolleyes:

At least the humidity broke for a little bit.

[Lewiston2Capt]

Locally we lost power for about 2 minutes. But some areas like the city of Niagara Falls were without power for 3-4 hours. By midnight I believe all areas had power back. We were recalled immediately after it happened and stood by until 12 am. Ran a car fire and a possible fire at the hospital. We were actually staged at the Niagara Power Project pump station because the entire area was without water. I can tell you from what I saw there werent any problems at the Niagara Falls Hydroelectric Generating Station. And I certainly didnt see any lightning. I do know that there was a whole lot of head scratching going on amongst the power authority employees.

So, to answer your question Artie, your guess is as good as mine. How were things on your end?

[MFDExplorer51]

I am two hours out from the edge of NYC. We went out at like 3:15 pm yesterday (8-14-03). And it went back on at 3:15 am this morning (8-15-03). We were called to one automatic fire alarm, and a few automatic medical alert alarms. But that was mainly it.

It was fun while the power was out, it wasnt hot for us here, so it wasnt that big of a deal. Me and my father went around making sure some of the people that we know had their oxygen and generators working.

Glad to see the grid is being restabilized however.

[PeteThor813]

To be honest, I am somewhat jealous. If that would have happenend here getting recalled would have been awesome OT pay. It happenend a couple of years ago for some riots, and that was really good for the pay. Some of the runs now would really be no fun. Toronto has had over 125 runs simply for elevator saves, those are no fun at all. The finger pointing is in full force now to try to find blame. Now many people are saying it all started in Ohio (Go Bucks!)

[E40FDNYL35]

FLASH NEWS...Hicksville, L.I. power back at 12:38 PM...stop...Still wide spread power out in area...stop...no need to send help...stop...have plenty of beer to last till evening...stop

[Lewiston2Capt]

Originally posted by E40FDNYL35
FLASH NEWS...Hicksville, L.I. power back at 12:38 PM...stop...Still wide spread power out in area...stop...no need to send help...stop...have plenty of beer to last till evening...stop

Good to see you are still in good spirits! (pun intended :p ) If it counts for anything I didnt do it. Glad to see everyone still hanging in there. Stay safe.

[backdraft663]

Emergency medical services responded to 5,000 calls -- 600 more than the city's record for a 24-hour period. Over 800 elevator rescues were made by the fire and police departments.

[E40FDNYL35]

The Blackout of 03' was OK for me and my family. Just got in from work 3:30 to start my LONG awaited Vacation. Just picked up some nice steaks and some brew. Checked in at FH Forums lights out at 4:29 PM. Called work said stay home... Pool Party started at 4:35 PM with the neighbors, lasted till I think 2 am. LIFE IS GOOD....

[firenresq77]

It was ugly for awhile here in Toledo, OH area. The dispatch center where I work was hammered for awhile. JUst started my shift at 1600, then it went to hell. Thankfully it didn't last too long for us. ONly about 3 hors or so for the worst of it.........

[ff7134]

Hey I still think it was the Canadians;). Us people from Ohio are innocent. Do you think we would do that and kill our own power so no A/C!!!They are now talking brown outs and rolling blackouts for the area.

[NJFFSA16]

Originally posted by E40FDNYL35
The Blackout of 03' was OK for me and my family. Just got in from work 3:30 to start my LONG awaited Vacation. Just picked up some nice steaks and some brew. Checked in at FH Forums lights out at 4:29 PM. Called work said stay home... Pool Party started at 4:35 PM with the neighbors, lasted till I think 2 am. LIFE IS GOOD....

You have a GREAT sense of timing Ray. So do I. I took the day off from work....and therefore didn't have to deal with Manhattan and the traffic and the pedestrians and the parking and the heat.

So, when the power went off at 4:15 EDT...I was home, working on a website for our firefighters. I soon learned about the immense size of the blackout....when the SPEN radio went bonkers with reports from all over the area. I went outside, fired up the radios in the firetruck...and kept the neighbors up to date on the activity. The power came on at 22:30 hrs.

We had one fatality in town. No one is sure if it is blackout related, however....a lifelong friend of mine was the victim. Awawiting autopsy results for cause of death. ALS was not available, due to the heavy call volume.....and he died at the hospital. BLS pleaded for ALS response, and proceeded to transport ASAP. I knew it was a serious call, by the tone of the PD and EMS.

I attempted to find info on the injured FDNY firefighter, but no success. Anyone know the details?

NJ

[E40FDNYL35]

Member from Brooklyn Ladder Company fell 2 stories. He is in stable condition.

[firechick76]

I saw some pictures of people sleeping in TIme Square and on the steps to a Post Office in NYC. This one picture had this guy sleeping on the steps in a suit and tie. There were all walks of life sleeping out together on the streets last night. Kinda cool in a strange way. I mean really under normal terms who would want to just sleep out there in Time Square!
I also have to say that maybe this sounds stupid or bad or whatever but I lived in Detroit and I am shocked that they didn't try to light up the entire city last night. That's their answer to everything! I would have much rather slept in Time Square last night over the Ren center in Detroit!

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

Originally posted by firechick76
I saw some pictures of people sleeping in TIme Square and on the steps to a Post Office in NYC. This one picture had this guy sleeping on the steps in a suit and tie. There were all walks of life sleeping out together on the streets last night. Kinda cool in a strange way. I mean really under normal terms who would want to just sleep out there in Time Square!
I also have to say that maybe this sounds stupid or bad or whatever but I lived in Detroit and I am shocked that they didn't try to light up the entire city last night. That's their answer to everything! I would have much rather slept in Time Square last night over the Ren center in Detroit!

When you think about it, when there is an abnormal event, many cities are burned and looted. It happened in NYC in 1977, but for the most part, New Yorkers are pretty civilized. Look at all the world champions won by the New York sports teams. Not once did the city have the slightest bit of civil unrest. But, Montreal, Detroit, State College, PA, etc., burn like the hammers of hell when there teams win.

Last night, the states I heard were 3 instances of minor looting (all with arrests), no major disturbances, 60 working fires (over 75% already determined to have been accidental, but gobs of stories about people pulling together to help. It's one of the neat things about living near NYC.

[hwoods]

Nothing happened here (thankfully) not even a flicker. we had a normal night in P.G. County, couple of hundred runs, (I think) and nothing serious or unusual heard on the radio. My biggest concern in an incident like this is Candles,Generators, and Camping Stoves being used improperly. Sudden thought - When the power goes off, how do you get fuel for your apparatus?? Stay Safe....

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

Easy. You have a contingency plan already in place to have fuel delivered via motorized tanker.

[Scoop422]

In Toronto as of 9 earlier this morning the firefighters had responded to over 1600 calls including 110 elevator rescues all done by 9 p.m. Even now there are currently 27 calls with 5 fires. Thank God I went off shift Friday morning.

[Quigger]

I lost power around 4ish and got it back around 1 am ish. I biked 1 1/2 or 2 miles to the station with gear on back :D. We had some EMS calls and a few bs fire calls (camp fire,water in basement) water in basement was some lady talked to her friend and the friend said to call the FD to check her basement for water...not even a inch in the subpump hole. For the fuel we have our own fuel tank in the ground (like a gas station) at station 1.

[RspctFrmCalgary]

Glad you made it through ok Scoop

[nmfire]

I saw that picture of the people sleeping on the steps of the post office. It is funny but at the same time, amazing.