Boy saved after fall in Tophet Brook

By Ryan Hutton
Posted: 07/31/2009 02:15:30 AM EDT


Click photo to enlargeThe fifth green at The Range’s mini-golf course was... (Ryan Hutton/North Adams Transcript)«1»North Adams Transcript

ADAMS -- Rescuers pulled a 13-year-old boy from Tophet Brook after the recent rain fall turned the stream into a torrent roughly 24 feet wide.

According to police reports, the boy was swimming with friends at the "Big Basin" swimming hole when rain fall caused a "swift rise in the water level" and the boys left. As they were leaving the area, two of the boys fell into the brook. One was able to reach the bank and climb out, but the other remained trapped in the river. The boy was perched on a boulder about 12 feet into the river, which was had water frequently lapping at it.

The Adams Police Department received a call at 5:24 p.m. on Wednesday saying that a boy was trapped in the river. Officers Michael Wandri and Gregory Charon responded in minutes, and Charon managed to toss the boy a rope and had him secure it around his waist.

The Alert Hose Company arrived a few minutes later and began preparing a rescue.

"He was pretty secure at the time we arrived, but it was still very dangerous," said Fire Chief Stephen Brown. "We were able to pass to him a life jacket and a water helmet and had him put those on just in case. We were observing signs of hypothermia, so time was of the essence at that point."

Brown said they managed to extend a 28-foot ladder across to the boulder and prepared to send a rescuer out to the boy.

"The river was swollen to about 24 feet wide," he said. "That 28-foot ladder was just able



to get across. We checked the water depth before we put any rescuers in and at that point it was about two and a half to three feet deep and moving at about 25 miles per hour. That’s when we realized we could not put a rescuer in the water safely."
They had also established a rescue team downstream in the event that the boy fell into the water again, but Assistant Fire Chief Paul Goyette managed to crawl out to the boy using the ladder and managed to bring him back safely. Brown said the firefighters had people ready in cold water rescue suits and life jackets ready to go into the river if the boy slipped, but added that, thankfully, it didn’t come to that.

"Water at that depth and speed exerts hundreds of pounds of pressure per square inch," Brown said. "It would not have been safe to send someone in. But if the situation turned bad, we would have done whatever we had to do."

According to the police reports the boy was carried up a hill back to the road where he was given immediate aid by the Adams Ambulance Company and taken to North Adams Regional Hospital as a precaution.

Both Brown and Adams Police Chief Donald Poirot said all those involved in the rescue acted admirably and bravely.

"I’m very proud of my officers," Poirot said. "Officer Charon took a lot of initiative to make sure the boy was secured until the Alerts arrived and were able to perform a rescue. He really went above and beyond."

Poirot said he is working on a certificate of commendation for the officers for their actions. He also cautioned others to avoid such dangers as the rain continues to fall on Berkshire County.

"It’s really a warning to avoid running water when there’s this much rain," he said. "We’ve had a lot of it and the ground is saturated. What we used to know as streams are now rivers."

To reach Ryan Hutton, e-mail rhutton@thetranscript.com.

Persistent rainfall leads to washouts, flooding in region

Assistant Fire Chief Paul Goyette helps a stranded 13-year-old boy get off a boulder in the middle of Tophet Brook. The boy became stranded after swimming at the Big Basin swimming hole and had to be rescued by members of the Adams Police Department and Alert Hose Company. (Photo submitted by Jean King)

By Meghan Foley
Posted: 07/31/2009 02:15:31 AM EDT


HANCOCK -- A lightning strike and subsequent house fire at approximately 3:20 p.m. Wednesday was only the beginning for the Hancock fire department, as heavy rains battered the area through Thursday morning.

Fire Chief David Rash said Thursday the department hadn’t even cleared the fire on Whitman Road when the calls started coming in about flooded streets and basements in the town’s village area.

"It has just been too much water too quickly," he said, while standing inside the Taylor Memorial Library on Main Street.

The library was one of several buildings along Hancock Road (Route 43) and Main Street with flooded basements as a result of several inches of rain falling within hours.

According to the National Weather Service in Albany, rainfall totals from Wednesday afternoon into Thursday morning in the cities of North Adams and Pittsfield were each less than three inches.

"Some areas of Berkshire County probably got half a foot of rain this week, which is usually more than what it can get in a month," said Hugh Johnson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albany, N.Y.

Known as a Bermuda High, the high-pressure area over the southeast coast combined with a strong jet stream over the region to keep the area warm, wet and humid.

Rash said that last time a lot of rain was dumped on the town in a small amount of time was in the 1990s, and the damage was similar.

Besides



flooded basements, the heavy rain on Wednesday and Thursday caused creeks and brooks in Hancock to swell and in some cases spill onto Hancock Road by the Jericho Valley Inn, Kittle Road and Madden Road.
"Last night there was standing water in almost every house in town. The culverts can’t handle it, and the water starts backing up and finds other ways to go," Rash said.

One of the places the water went was along the side of Madden Road instead of under it, making the mountain road impassable.

Ernie and Carole LeBarron have lived on Madden Road since 1969, and the only other time they saw similar damage from heavy rains was in 1976.

"We’re use to getting snowed in up here, but we’re not use to getting rained in," Ernie LeBarron said.

He said the brook coming down the mountain was moving so fast it took boulders and other debris with it, which clogged up the culvert near their house sending the brook down the side of the road.

Stephen and Diana Harrington, who live below the LeBarron’s, invited them to park their cars in the Harrington’s driveway.

"They’re getting to be a parking lot down there," Carole LeBarron said.

Work crews from Condron Construction, of Lanesborough, began fixing Madden Road Thursday morning.

Diana Harrington said after about two hours of rain Wednesday afternoon, she and her husband went outside and it was "like Niagra Falls coming off the mountain."

Her husband, Stephen, said the brook next to their property is usually dried up by the end of July, and on Wednesday night, they could hear boulders tumbling down it and hitting against each other.

"I’m quite surprised it rained as much has it did," he said.

While John and Betsy Lynch were able to make it up Madden Road Wednesday to their house, getting there from Westchester County in New York State was challenging.

"We had to ignore all the ‘road closed’ signs to get home," she said.

One road closure sign they couldn’t ignore was a bridge crossing a stream on Route 22 in Stephentown, N.Y.

Mike Gray, construction supervisor with the New York State Department of Transportation, said the temporary bridge crossing the brook was washed out Wednesday night, and work crews were in the process of fixing it Thursday afternoon.

"Hopefully if everything goes right, we’ll have the bridge opened tomorrow [Friday] night," he said.

The temporary bridge was installed earlier this year so the permanent bridge could be replaced. Gray said that work is suppose to be completed in mid-October.

Besides a bridge being washed out, Stephentown also experienced significant flooding at the intersection of Routes 22 and 43 and along Route 43 through the town. A culvert overflowed washing out Route 43 just west of the fire station making it impassable.

"We’ve been working around the clock. Several streams are still swollen. We are still doing pump-outs, which began about 36 hours ago," Rich Burgess, chief of the Stephentown Volunteer Fire Department, said Thursday afternoon.

Rensselaer County declared a state of emergency in Stephentown and Nassau following the rain storm.

Burgess said some families have been displaced from their homes, but are staying with family members.

"It’s just quite a mess," he said.

Brian Baker, a Stephentown attorney, spent Thursday getting three and a half to four feet of water in the basements of three apartment buildings he owns pumped out.

"The water table is so high ... you pump the water out, and it goes right back in," he said.

For the 22 to 23 years Baker has had his law offices in town, this was the worst flooding he had seen.

"It has been absolutely crazy. You drive five miles away and life is wonderful. Here it’s like being in a war zone and nobody knows it," he said.

Waubeeka Golf Links in Williamstown and the Lebanon Valley Speedway in New Lebanon, N.Y. also sustained significant flooding.

The flooding turned the Speedway’s drag racing strip into a lake, and left trailers and other vehicles resting in a few feet of water.

As of Thursday evening no upcoming races had been canceled.

Mark J. Mills, general manager of Waubeeka Golf Links on New Ashford Road in Williamstown, said the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh holes on the golf course got flooded after the Green River breached at the seventh hole.

The gold course was closed Thursday, will be closed Friday, and a decision will be made Friday afternoon whether they will open on Saturday, he said.

Elsewhere in the county, Great Barrington had issues not only with flooding near the Rudolf Steiner School and the area of West Plain Road, but also with mosquitoes.

Aside from standing water, Becket reported some gravel road washouts and a few trees down. Richmond continued to sustain road damage from the latest rains, undermining the existing damage they caused on Monday night.

In Pittsfield, passersby stopped to gawk at the incalculable flooding that occurred in the parking lot and land surrounding Wahconah Park. Though the baseball field itself was relatively dry, the area outside its walls was submerged under several feet of dark, muddy water.

As of Thursday, there were no more baseball games scheduled at Wahconah Park, home of the Pittsfield American Defenders of the New England Collegiate Baseball League.

Sophie Maguire and Jenn Smith of The Berkshire Eagle contributed to this report.

Area volunteers to graduate from firefighters’ course

By Ryan Hutton
Posted: 07/24/2009 02:20:38 AM EDT


North Adams Transcript

CHESHIRE -- In a little over a week, the county will see close to two dozen volunteer firefighters become nationally certified as they graduate from the Firefighter I/II course.

Funded by part of the $666,000 federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant received by Cheshire three years ago, the course trains firefighters to be able to work on a professional level anywhere. In all, 23 volunteer firefighters from Cheshire, Adams, Savoy, Lenox, Lee and Richmond will graduate from the 186-hour course on Aug. 1 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Pittsfield.

According to SAFER grant administrator James Pasquini, the course took 11 months to complete by holding courses one weekend a month and one week night a month.

"I think this graduation shows that the program has been very successful," Pasquini said. "Before, we had one Cheshire firefighter certified, now we have nine. Plus we’ve added 23 better trained volunteer firefighters to the county. Savoy didn’t have any before, and I think this shows very high success."

State Rep. Daniel E. Bosley, D-North Adams, will be at the graduation ceremony and Congressman John Olver has said he will try to be there as well. The Department of Homeland Security, which funds the SAFER grant, will be sending SAFER program specialist Victor Esch to speak to the graduates.

"Hopefully, this will get us the recognition we need and will help us get additional


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Advertisement

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
funding for future programs throughout the county." Pasquini said.
Pasquini said the local firefighters also participated in six additional two-day training session on subjects like vehicle extrication and ropes courses.

"We really turned that grant around," Pasquini said. "It was originally just for recruitment, but what good is getting additional firefighters if they aren’t well trained? That’s like going to fight a fire without water."

Cheshire firefighters graduating from the Firefighter I/II program include Timothy Audet, Michael Biagini Jr., Chief Tom Framcesconi, Shawn Martin, Kim Martin, Jason Mendonca, Corey Swistak and Trevor Swistak.

From the Alert Hose Company in Adams Jason Godfrey and Mark Therrien Jr. will graduate, and graduating Savoy firefighters include Steven Greenleaf, Peter Miner, Chief Lawrence Ordyna, Scott Sefcik and Jeffrey Ziter.

To reach Ryan Hutton, e-mail rhutton@thetranscript.com.

College makes donation of carbon monoxide detectors

Craig A. Pedercini, Williamstown Fire District chief, shows some carbon monoxide detectors donated by Williams College to the Berkshire County Fire Chiefs Association. (Meghan Foley/North Adams Transcript)


By Meghan Foley

WILLIAMSTOWN -- In the midst of switching over to a hardwire carbon monoxide alarm system, Williams College faced the question of what to do with its over 500 battery-powered detectors.

The answer: Donate them to local fire departments to hand out to residents.

"We figured it was a good avenue to get them used as opposed to throwing them out," Joseph M. Moran, manager of safety and environmental compliance at Williams College, said Thursday.

He said state regulations for carbon monoxide detectors in large residential buildings were clarified to allow for a detector placed near fossil fuel-burning equipment so long as it was on a hard wire. As a result, the college was able to start installing a hardwire detection system this spring. All residential halls were online by June 30.

That left the college with a surplus of 520 battery-powered carbon monoxide detectors, which were installed in 2006 following former Governor Mitt Romney signing Nicole’s Law.

The law, which was signed in November 2005, requires property owners to install and maintain carbon monoxide detectors in all residential buildings.

Moran said in order be in compliance with the legislation, the college had to put a battery-powered carbon monoxide detector 10 feet from every bedroom door in a residence hall.

"It was a huge task for us, not only to install them, but to maintain them," he said.

Moran’s past experiences as a



volunteer firefighter and fire chief aided him in determining the fate of the detectors.
"The first thing I thought of was if there was a way to donate them to the fire chief’s association, and see if there was a way they could use them," he said. "This was an opportunity to put something out there and have it be really well used in houses and apartments lacking it."

Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas resulting from the incomplete burning of fossil fuels such as oil, wood and natural gas. It’s also poisonous and potentially deadly.

Craig A. Pedercini, Williamstown Fire District chief, said Thursday Moran asked him to ask members of the Berkshire County Fire Chiefs Association if they would be interested in receiving some carbon monoxide detectors that were no longer needed.

"That went over big," Pedercini said.

Carbon monoxide detectors average a seven-year life span before needing to be replaced.

Pedercini said several fire chiefs throughout Berkshire County have made requests to receive some of the detectors so they can make them available to residents who otherwise couldn’t afford the devices.

With 32 communities in Berkshire County, 520 carbon monoxide detectors will go fast, and Pedercini is trying to limit 20 to 40 detectors per department, but will distribute more if needed.

He said about 120 detectors were distributed at a Berkshire County Fire Chiefs Association meeting last month and he expected to distribute more at the association’s meeting Thursday night.

In Northern Berkshire, Florida Volunteer Fire Department Chief Mike Bedini has already received some detectors, and fire chiefs from North Adams, Savoy, Adams and Cheshire have made requests, Pedercini said.

"It’s just a matter of hooking up with the chiefs and getting the detectors to them," he said.

In Williamstown, the distribution of the donated carbon monoxide detectors will probably be handled on a case-by-case basis, Pedercini said.

"If we go into a residence that doesn’t have a carbon monoxide detector, install one, and somewhere down the road it alerts us to a carbon monoxide problem, it has done its job," he said.

To reach Meghan Foley, e-mail mfoley@thetranscript.com.