A major wind and rain event on 11/1/19 caused widespread damage to trees and power lines. As a result the SLVFD responded to over 25 storm related emergencies.

There were numerous trees down across road ways and on power lines, many of which were burning. There were multiple power lines and power poles broken by the high wind. There was wind damage to buildings and some fire alarm activations. The SLVFD also had to extinguish 2 small wild land fires as a result of down power lines.

The storm related calls started around 1:00am and the number of calls quickly escalated with the intensity of the storm.

As the calls became numerous the SLVFD established an incident command post at the fire station around 7:00am. SLVFD had 28 members , drivers, and officers who staged at the fire station and responded in 4 man crews throughout the day.

The SLVFD received mutual aid assistance from the Tupper Lake Volunteer Fire Department for one call and the Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Department for a standby at our station while we were on multiple calls.

At one point during the wind storm the SLVFD had every single fire truck out on separate incidents.

SLVFD members stood bye at the station until 4 PM.

We would like to thank our mutual aid fire departments, National Grid for their quick response to 911 calls, and the Saranac Lake Village DPW and Town of Harrietstown Highway department for their assistance with Barricades and heavy equipment in removing a few of the extremely large trees.