The remnants of Hurricane Isaias swept through the area on Tuesday August 4th and and brought extreme flooding to the region. Eastern Berks Fire used with every piece of apparatus in service responding to incidents through our coverage area from more than 6+ inches of torrential rain. Rt 100 was shut down in two different location due to flooding and cars stuck in water. Side roads were impassible due to trees down across the road or across wires. We responded to water rescues, structure fires, building collapse, propane leaks, wires on homes, trees on wires, wires in the roadway, trees blocking roads, washed out roads, pump details, and fire and CO alarms.
THEN to top it all off, our Bechtelsville Station was flooded by massive amounts of water running THROUGH the station, destroying the parking lot, flooding the social room, and undermining the floor of the apparatus building and apron. Tens of thousands of dollars of damage was done.
Forgedale Road about a mile west of Old Rt 100 was destroyed by flood water and remains impassable. It was a long, long day.
Two bright notes were the families who brought pizzas to our Bechtelsville Station to feed the troops. THANK YOU!! As of 2200 hours, we had responded to more than 36 incidents. Then more came in!!
Calls per municipality were as follows: Washington Twp- 20; District Twp – 5; Bally Borough – 4; Bechtelsville Borough – 4; 1 each for Pike Twp, Colebrookdale Twp and Douglass(Montg).
