Fire companies rush to Elmira from across New York

ELMIRA — More than 40 fire departments from outside Chemung County descended on the Elmira area Thursday evening to help with recovery from a powerful storm that ripped through the community.

It was the largest mobilization of outside help to come to the aid of Elmira in 40 years, local emergency officials said.

Mere minutes after the storm tore a path of destruction through much of the Elmira area, Chemung County Director of Fire and Emergency Services Michael S. Smith was on the phone to his counterparts in neighboring counties, looking for help.

“I called them early on,” Smith said. “We thought there were going to be people trapped in buildings who needed rescue. That was the rationale. We got reports of buildings being down and multiple vehicle crashes. We needed as much support as quickly as we could get it.”

Smith deliberately avoided calling areas that might have had their own storm emergencies, such as several rural fire departments in eastern Chemung County.

He also waited to call Steuben and Tioga counties until he was sure they didn’t have their own crises.

One of Smith’s first calls was to Schuyler County, which was spared most of the storm’s fury.

“We put together a task force from five departments — fire engines and fire rescues — from Odessa, Burdett, Watkins Glen, Montour Falls and Beaver Dams. That’s the whole southern half of our county,” Schuyler County Emergency Management Coordinator William Kennedy said.

“We sent vehicles last year to help with the flooding. It’s a system that’s in place that’s worked well.”

Fire departments from Seneca, Yates, Tioga, Steuben and Tompkins counties ultimately rushed to Chemung County to help in the aftermath of the storm.

Emergency officials used the parking lot at Weis Markets as a staging area for all the departments. Representatives from the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control were on hand to help coordinate the response, Smith said.

From the staging area, units fanned out across storm-ravaged neighborhoods, assessing damage, assisting residents, quarantining areas with downed power lines and performing related duties.

All of the out-of-town departments were sent home by midnight Thursday, said Smith, who added that he couldn’t recall fire departments from so far away coming to the aid of Elmira since the Hurricane Agnes flood of 1972.

Thursday’s response was a new experience for many of those mutual aid departments as well.

“We go to Chemung County quite a bit because we’re on the border, but the last time we did mutual aid to Elmira was in 1972 for the flood,” said Odessa Fire Chief Mike Tomassi, who said he had people standing by at his fire station as soon as they heard the forecast.

“In 22 years in the fire service, I have never gone to the City of Elmira,” Watkins Glen Fire Chief Dominick Smith said.

“We’ve gone as far as Millport. I’ve got to commend Elmira Fire Chief (Patrick) Bermingham and his staff for getting stuff mobilized. They were dealt a very tough card to deal with.”