Year End, New Year Start
Take Bizarre Twist

Town of Evans NY – MidTown – December 30, 2004 ---

YEAR END:

The night before New Year's Eve turned into a weird series of events for Evans Center and Lake Erie Beach Firefighters.

Lake Erie Beach was dispatched to a reported rollover accident in front of Maria's Pizzeria and apartments at 9124 Erie Road around 4:30pm. While still attending to the accident victims, they were alerted to a fire in one of the apartments behind the restaurant.

Firefighters looked over and saw flames coming from a corner apartment. Chief Bill Hamm immediately radioed for a full fire response from Lake Erie Beach and Evans Center. Brant responded with a tanker and Angola's ambulance was on location from the accident.

Lake Erie Beach's crew knocked down the bulk of the fire as firefighters from Evans Center Engine 1 provided vertical ventilation by cutting a hole in the roof. The fire is under investigation by Erie County Sheriffs Detectives.

Later in the evening, Evans Center was dispatched to an EMS house call on Bennett Road around 8pm. Evans Center crews were picking up as Rural Metro Paramedics were evaluating the 50 year old male patient in the back of their ambulance.

Evans Police Lt. Chuck Danzi had just cleared the scene of the EMS call when he was flagged down at the corner of Bennett Road and Rte. 5 by people reporting that their apartment was on fire. He radioed this information to his dispatch who then alerted Evans Center and Lake Erie Beach of a working structure fire just a hundred yards from the EMS call.

Evans Center Assistant Chief Tiger Schmittendorf backed down the street and took up command in the lot of the former Family Promise Home at the corner of Bennett and Rte. 5. Evans Center's ambulance and light rescue returned to the station, allowing crews to gear up and respond Engine 1 & Engine 3 to the scene.

Lt. Danzi and Patrolman Bruce Green Jr. entered the second floor apartment and used fire extinguishers to get a knock at the fire in the kitchen of the front apartment. Danzi reported a natural gas leak and the two officers evacuated the building.

Schmittendorf confirmed that all the occupants were out of the building and ordered Engine 1 to pull past the fire building and to stretch a hose line to the door. Green shut off the two gas meters on the outside of the structure using a spanner wrench.

Engine 1's crew of Capt. Tom Szczepaniak and Firefighters Dennis Allen, Alan Beers, Matt Gombos, and Sean Murphy donned their SCBAs and went on breathing air before stretching the charged hose line to the second floor. There they encountered heavy smoke and a smoldering fire behind and around the stove. They extinguished the remaining fire using the hose line.

Engine 1's chauffer Bob Zamrok and other firefighters tapped the hydrant directly in front of the fire building to provide a water supply if needed.

The crew of Engine 3 laddered the front of the building and placed an exhaust fan in the front window. It took about 30 minutes to fully ventilate the apartment.

Lake Erie Beach's Engine 1 arrived and their Rescue 7  provided scene lighting and fire police support at Rte. 5. Evans Center Engine 2 shifted from Station 2 to Erie Road Station 1 on a fill-in assignment.

Interior crews disconnected the flexible connector from the back of the stove and removed the stove to the outside of the structure. After close examination, they found a significant break in the flex connector which apparently allowed natural gas to leak and ignite, spreading fire to objects behind and near the stove.

Fortunately, quick action by police and fire crews thwarted a more serious hazard.

Evans Center and Rural Metro EMS personnel evaluated a teenage boy who suffered singe burns to the face. He was treated and released at the scene with parental permission.

Schmittendorf requested that the Town of Evans Building Inspector respond to the fire at the multi-family residence. After an inspection by Code Enforcement Officers Chuck LaBarbera and Paul Ryerse, the residents were allowed to return to the apartment building.

Evans Center was assisted at the scene by the Angola Fire Control Dispatch Center, Town of Evans Police Officers Chuck Danzi, Bruce Green and Mike Massulo; Rural/Metro Paramedics and Shift Supervisor Eric Conley.

To have a fire break out right in front of fire crews is an anomaly. To have it happen twice in one night is just bizarre.

NEW YEAR:

Following an EMS house call earlier in the day, Evans Center firefighters were activated for an accident with injuries on Versailles Plank Road around 5:30pm.

Chiefs Tim Szczepaniak and Tiger Schmittendorf arrived on Versailles Plank between Gowans Road and New Jerusalem Road to find a horse and a young girl down in the roadway. Rural Metro Paramedic Doug Milks and EMT Craig Buczkowski arrived immediately behind them and began assessing the patient. Evans Center's ambulance followed and Paramedics Tim and Tom Szczepaniak assisted Milks in treating and packaging the 12 year old girl while Schmittendorf took command.

Apparently, the 12 year old and two other girls were riding their horses south on Versailles Plank back towards the stables they belong to when a van came over the blind hill at Gowans Road and struck the horse and girl from behind. The impact threw the horse and rider some 50+ feet, with both apparently striking the guard rail on the opposite side of the road.

The impact killed the horse and seriously injured the girl. The driver of the van refused care and transportation at the scene. The other horses and riders were not injured.

Schmittendorf requested that a Mercy Flight Air Medical Helicopter land at the closed Angola Airport and diverted Engine 1 to secure a landing zone there. Paramedics immobilized the girl as other Evans Center units shut down traffic at Gowans and New Jerusalem Roads.

The girl was transported in Rural Metro 518 from the accident scene to the landing zone, transferred to the helicopter and transported to the Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo in serious condition.

Evans Center units remained on scene to provide traffic and lighting support while Evans Police officers conducted an accident investigation. Firefighters then cleared the roadway as the animal was transported back to its stable for burial.

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