One on One with Fire Chief Joe Houck Regarding Weekend Storm

In the hazardous aftermath of “Snowtober,” Patch sat down with Fire Chief Joseph Houck who provided an update on road conditions, safety tips, and information on how the fire department, police department, rescue squad, and Department of Public Works came together to tirelessly serve the citizens of Summit.

Chief Houck began my urging residents to stay away from all downed wires.

“We want everyone to remember to treat every downed wire as if it is a live wire.  Even if the wire appears to be a cable wire, it could have come in contact with a live wire and became live. We are urging residents to only go out if you must because live wires could be buried under the snow and may not be directly visible,” the Chief stated.

Late Monday afternoon, Patch received an email from a family friend of the deceased reporting the fatality. Summit Patch is currently investigating whether or not this fatality is in fact related to the snow storm. The family friend of the 29 year old male reported that “during the storm, a tree fell on a car and the person occupying the vehicle died.” Patch will continue to report on this story.

Chief Houck stated that EMS and the fire department responded to multiple medical emergencies occurred during the storm having to do with downed trees.

“The fire department responded to medical emergencies on two occasions. I cannot comment on these injuries due to privacy reasons, but the injured parties were transported to hospitals immediately,” the Chief stated.

Patch reached out to John Christmann, Vice President of the Summit Volunteer Squad for his statement regarding the storm.

"The Summit Volunteer First Aid Squad maintained two full crews at the squad building 24/7 during the storm and another full crew able to respond from their homes nearby. We handled 22 calls into Sunday. At one point we had three ambulances out. We were very prepared in advance of the storm," Christmann stated.

Chief Houck went on to state that the fire department has responded to over 350 calls for service. These calls included trees on homes, wires down, medical emergencies, and flooding due to the fact that without power, sump pumps are unable to operate.

“The emergency is far from over,” Houck stated. “We have been responding nonstop since Friday at 3:30 a.m. The Police, Fire, Department of Public Works, EMS, dispatch services, and emergency management (OEM) are doing an outstanding job. Our men and women are operating in extremely treacherous conditions; we could hear the branches coming down around us,” the Fire Chief described.

Houck expressed that for Summit, this storm is worse than Hurricane Irene, largely due to the fact that people are without heat in their homes. With over 7,000 without power in Summit, the Chief reminded residents that that number refers to customers- meaning homes. Now, imagine how many people must be without power.

Chief Houck went on to comment on JCP&L’s response to the storm.

“I can’t control their operations, but I will say that the service could absolutely been better,” the Chief stated. “The devastation I am seeing in terms of trees and power is the worst I have seen in my entire career. There are historic amounts of people in Summit without power,” Houck said.

When asked which roads he believes to be hardest hit by the storm, Chief Houck stated that every part of Summit has been equally affected by power outages and fallen trees. He went on to describe that although Summit Avenue reopened this afternoon, many main roads and thoroughfares are still inaccessible, citing roads like Fernwood, Hillcrest, Oak Ridge Avenue, Glenside Avenue (which has impacted exit 45 on Route 78 East), the roads near Franklin School, and Route 124.

Houck made sure to express his gratitude for all of the service organizations helping to respond to calls for help and clean up hazardous areas.

“It’s not the Chief that does the work; it’s the guys on the street. The excellent cooperation and the synergy of all of these organizations will get us out of this mess faster than ever before.  Earlier today, I witnessed two officers help a senior citizen jump start her car. Other responders might have closed the garage and chosen not to respond, but they were out there doing everything they could to help. These guys are nonstop,” Chief Houck stated.