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In a typical 24-hour period, South Metro firefighters answer 150 to 175 calls. Tuesday, they answered more than 300.
CENTENNIAL, Colo. — South Metro Fire Rescue responded to about 150 more calls than usual on Tuesday.
In a typical 24-hour period, spokesperson Eric Hurst said, the department answers 150 to 175 calls. Tuesday, they answered more than 300.
Most of the calls Tuesday were water emergencies and active fire alarms. The brutally cold temperatures, followed by the warmup above freezing temperatures, triggered a big mess for people whose pipes burst.
“Those pipes already had little cracks in them, and so the water started flying everywhere as soon as that ice melted off,” Hurst said.
History repeats itself, so these fire crews were ready.
“We predicted that it might be a busy day,” Hurst said. “South Metro actually placed two different units in service that typically aren’t on a day like today.”
By the time the sun set, they had already been flooded with more than 300 calls.
“On a typical 24-hour period at South Metro, it’s more like 150-175,” Hurst said. “It’s rare for us to respond to this volume of water emergencies if we are just having a standard freeze.”
No school Tuesday for some districts may have helped some situations.
“There is probably people home and they’re detecting those water problems or those freezes earlier, and they might be getting to them before there is flooding issues,” Hurst said.
If there’s one lesson to learn, it’s to know where your water shut-off valves are.
“So if the worst does happen, you know right where to go to shut that water off to prevent more happening in your home or business,” Hurst said.
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