PRESS RELEASE

Date:                November 22, 2008

To:                    Area Press

From:               Larry W. Couch, Fire Chief

Re:                   Log Truck Wreck Traps One, Injures Two

Responders swarmed to the scene of a log truck accident Saturday afternoon.  The accident occurred near the top of Anderson Hill on WV Route #89.  The Log Truck left the roadway plunging approximately 70 feet over a steep embankment and coming to rest against some smaller trees and leaving the truck precariously perched on the hillside.

The driver had reportedly jumped from the truck as it began its decent over the embankment and was uphill along-side the truck upon arrival of the responders, he had suffered various, non-life-threatening injuries, and was able to be quickly removed from the scene by fire fighters and EMS workers and was transported to Wetzel County Hospital.

The passenger was entrapped in the trucks cab, as a result of heavy front-end damage and damage to the rear of the cab from the weight of the logs against the bulk-head of the trucks bed.

Fire fighters had to secure the truck to prevent it from continuing its descent over the hillside.  Once secured, nearly a dozen logs had to be removed to relief pressure that they were placing against the cab of the truck, contributing to the entrapment of the victim.  Cable come-a-longs as well as a cable from a tow truck, were used to systematically remove the logs from the truck.

Fire fighters then used various hydraulic tools from the host of tools commonly referred to as the “jaw’s of life” to displace the trucks cab, dash and firewall, to help free the victim from the cab.

This was an all-out effort by everyone involved, we used nearly every resource at our disposal to carefully, safely and methodically extract this victim to safety without endangering the rescuers or the victim.

New Martinsville Fire Fighters were assisted by Grandview and Paden City Fire Fighters, Jackson Towing, as well as several knowledgeable loggers at the scene.  Grandview Fire Department also assisted in establishing the landing zone for a helicopter.  Paden City Fire Fighters also provided coverage for additional calls at New Martinsville’s Steelton Station.

Ambulances from New Martinsville Fire Department and Wetzel County EMS responded to the call. Bayer Corporations, Emergency Services were asked to place their Helipad on stand-by as an alternate landing site.

The original call of the crash came in to Wetzel County 911 at 1:56 PM.  The first rescue unit arrived on the scene at 2:12 PM.  The entrapped victim was finally able to be extracted from the wreckage at 4:23 PM, he was transported by helicopter to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown WV.

PRESS RELEASE

Date:                November 2, 2008
To:                   All Area Press
From:               Larry W. Couch, Fire Chief
Re:                   $50,000 in Damages to North Main Street Home

New Martinsville Fire Fighters responded to a fire Friday afternoon at 758 North Main Street.  Arriving units found the home to be heavily charges with a thick black smoke and quickly discovered that the fire, in the laundry room of the home, had been extinguished as a result of the fire burning through the supply hoses of the clothes washer.

It wasn’t the first time that we seen this happen said NMVFD Fire Chief, Larry Couch.  Its been nearly 20-years since the last time I could say that the homes plumbing saved the house but, in this case it not only saved the home but likely prevented damage to neighboring homes as well. 

The homeowner, Madeline Adkins, wasn’t home at the time and Couch estimates that, if not self extinguished, the fire would likely not have been discovered until it was rolling out of the attic space of the home, since the small but intense fire had started to burn through the laundry room ceiling.

A mail carrier and a concerned neighbor, former City Councilman, Steve Bohrer, noted water running around the exterior of the home and notified the home owner, who was doing errands at the time. When Mrs. Adkins came home, they opened the front door, encountered the heavy smoke and notified the fire department.

Fire units were notified of the call at 3:00 pm, and remained on scene until 4:18 pm.  NMVFD responded with three fire engines, a rescue truck, a personnel truck and 12-firefighters.

Damages to the home and its contents were estimated to be nearly $50,000.  

PRESS RELEASE 

Date:                October 29, 2008
To:                   Area Press
From:               Larry W. Couch, Fire Chief
Re:                   Fire Destroys Home

A fire on a stove resulted in a New Martinsville Home being destroyed and closing WV Route #2 for nearly three hours.  The call for the fire was received by Wetzel County 911 at 3:43 PM, in which the 911 operator reported being able here the crackling of the fire in the background and advised the occupant to evacuate the home.

 Fire Fighters were initially able to quickly extinguish the fire in the kitchen, but the fire had burned through the wooden wall behind the stove and traveled up through the wall and into the attic where it grew rapidly and was trapped between several walls and a complex of roof joist that slowed the fire fighters access to the fire.

 This was one of the hardest fought house fires that we have had in quite some time said New Martinsville VFD Fire Chief, Larry Couch.  These men and women gave 120% effort on controlling this fire and the end result will be that many personal mementos have been saved, things that otherwise could never have been replaced for the elderly occupant of the home.

 The structure has been declared a complete loss, with and estimated $70,000 in structural damage and another $ 30,000 in content damage.  There were no injuries to either civilians or fire fighters in the event.   Fire Fighters from New Martinsville, Paden City, Sardis, and Clarington battled the blaze.  Grandview VFD was on stand-by during the fire, while Wetzel County EMS, New Martinsville Police Department, Wetzel County Sheriff’s Dept., West Virginia Department of Highways, New Martinsville Water Department, and the American Red Cross all assisted at the scene.  The fire was declared under control at 6:10 PM and the last fire units cleared the scene at 7:36 PM.

There isn’t enough that can be said for the volunteer fire fighters and the folks who were passing-by and stopped to help the woman get out of her burning home.  All the offers of help for us as well as for the homeowner are just fabulous, we really appreciate everyone’s concern for the wellbeing of the homeowner and the fire fighters, Couch said.

PRESS RELEASE

Date:     October 8, 2008
To:        Area Press
From:    Larry W. Couch, Fire Chief
Re:        CEDAP Grant Awarded
 

The New Martinsville Fire Department has been awarded a Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Grant “CEDAP” for new hydraulic rescue tools.  The grant has a value of nearly $40,000.

CEDAP is sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security, Office of State and Local Government Coordination & Preparedness (SLGCP). It is designed to assist smaller communities in acquiring and using commercially available equipment to prevent, deter, and respond to terrorist attacks, as identified in state homeland security strategies and to be better able to respond to more typical daily emergencies.

We’re very excited about the awarding of this grant, said Larry Couch, NMVFD Fire Chief.  On the heels of a State based allocation of nearly $80,000 worth of hazardous materials, personal protective equipment, this second grant award helps to better equip the department in serving the community through the up-grading of equipment.

The new hydraulic rescue tools will be placed on a rescue truck that is based out of the Steelton Station and will retire a set of rescue tools that is nearly 30-years old.  Having this set of rescue tools on the Steelton based truck lends to the equivalency in services provided by both New Martinsville Fire Stations and will give the Steelton crews an even bigger “jump-start” on complex rescue situations in the Northern portion of the departments coverage area, by not having to wait on equipment from the Ohio Street Station.  

Since beginning the pursuit of grants in 2002, the New Martinsville VFD has amassed more than ¾ of a million dollars in federal, state, local, private and philanthropic grants.

We’re very proud of our record in pursuing equipment grants, Couch said.  When you consider that we are in one of the poorest counties in one of the poorest states in the country, you can’t tell it from the equipment in our fire department, we’re not at all embarrassed to accept help and to let these program coordinators know that when they send us equipment or money for equipment, it will be used wisely and effectively, Couch said.

Anyone wishing to become a member of the New Martinsville Volunteer Fire Department can go to the department’s website (www.fdnm.org) where they can either download or complete and submit an on-line application.  Applicants must be at least 16-years old.

PRESS RELEASE

Date:                September 26, 2008
To:                    Area Press
From:               Larry W. Couch, Fire Chief
Re:                   Department Receives Equipment
 

The New Martinsville Fire Department has received nearly $80,000 worth of equipment from the WV Department of Military Affairs, Office of the State Fire Marshal, through an equipment distribution program that allocates the equipment to be “pre-positioned” in key locations throughout the state.

The equipment, consisting of an assortment of Hazardous Materials Personal Protective Suits and decontamination supplies was picked-up from the state’s warehouse in Big Chimney WV on Friday,  September 26, 2008.

We will continue to equip a “Special Operations Trailer” that we purchased last year for just this purpose, said Larry Couch, NMVFD Fire Chief.  We have a significant amount of supplies and equipment in this response trailer, and these new supplies will allow us to complete the stocking of the trailer, Couch said.

As with all of our other equipment and supplies, these new “Level – A and Level – B Suits along with the other incidentals are available to any public safety agency that may need them, Couch said.  These hazardous materials supplies will compliment those, supplies and equipment already stored and made available by the Paden City Volunteer Fire Company.
 

PRESS RELEASE

Date:                September 15, 2008
To:                    Area Press
From:               Larry W. Couch, Fire Chief
Re:                   High Winds Bring Multiple Calls

The high winds from a storm system that was once hurricane “Ike” caused minor damage to power lines and trees throughout the area Sunday, September 14^th.  The New Martinsville Fire Department responded to reports of trees down in the roadway on Doolin Road and in Proctor, while there were power line issue’s at the following locations:  North Bridge Street between Mensore Distributing and H & R Block, 500 James Street at the Intersection with West Thistle Drive, behind 291 Locust Street.

There didn’t appear to be any major wide-spread outages in the corporate limits, it seemed as though there may have been less than a handful of residential and business outages, according to Larry Couch, NMVFD Fire Chief.

The majority of the calls occurred between 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM and where all handled by either the fire department, Municipal Electric or Allegheny Power.  3-Fire Engines a Rescue Truck and a Personnel Vehicle along with 9-Personnel responded to the various calls.

PRESS RELEASE

Date:               August 24, 2008

To:                   Area Press

From:               Larry W. Couch

Re:                   NMVFD’s Wins Fire Prevention Award

The department is always interested in new members who wish to help the community.  To become a member you must be at least 16 years old.  You can apply on-line at (www.fdnm.org) or by contacting any member of the department and requesting an application for membership.
 

PRESS RELEASE

Date:               August 14, 2008
To:                   Area Press
From:               Larry W. Couch
Re:                   EMS Licensure Renewed

 The New Martinsville Fire Department has received a renewal of its Emergency Medical Services Licensure from the West Virginia Department of Health, Office of Emergency Medical Services.

The department was recently inspected through a site visit by the WVOEMS and a review of its data resulted meeting or exceeding the requirements in all categories including:

·                     Operational Facilities

·                     Operational Policies and Procedures

·                     Records and Reports

·                     Insurance Coverage

·                     EMS System Requirements

·                     Providing Services without Regard of Ability to Pay

·                     Public Access

·                     Availability

·                     Communications 

The Department received perfect scores in: Level of Service, Medical Accountability, Communications, Community Education, Disaster Capability, Response Time Performance, Personnel Practices & Procedures, Financial Stability, Facilities & Equipment, and Accountability.

 The New Martinsville Fire Department provides Basic Life Support, Emergency Medical Services to the area as a supplemental provider to Wetzel County EMS.  What that means for our community is that, when the County System is overwhelmed or understaffed, we strive to provide supplemental Emergency Medical Care to those in need, said Larry W. Couch, NMVFD’s Fire Chief.

 NMVFD’s, EMS Services are guided by Lieutenant, Steve Yoho, Steve does an excellent job of keeping the EMS division of our services in “tip-top” shape, Couch said.

NMVFD, EMS responded to nearly 146-ambulance calls in 2007 & 2008 including areas of:  New Martinsville,  Paden City, Silver Hill, Sistersville, Proctor, Pine Grove, Reader, Piney Fork, Hundred and Barker Hill, among others 

 The departments licensure is now valid through August of 2010.

 NMVFD has 9-EMT’s and 1-Paramedic within the department and invites those who may be interested in becoming a volunteer EMT or EMT/Firefighter, serving their Friends and Neighbors with care givers they know, to go to the departments website at (www.fdnm.org), you can apply on-line or print & complete the application and hand deliver or mail it to the department.
 

PRESS RELEASE

Date:               August 14, 2008
To:                   Area Press
From:               Larry W. Couch
Re:                   NMVFD’s Improves Radio Communications

The key in any emergency is communications and with only 1-operator on duty in our 911 center, it sometimes becomes vitally important that responders be able to communicate directly with one another to lessen the amount of the, already busy, 911 operators, said Larry Couch, New Martinsville’s Fire Chief.

While many other areas of the state, region and country have been working towards, what is known as, “inner-operability” of radio systems, hundreds of issue’s have developed with these new systems, so we are opting to simply create our own system of inner-operability, Couch said.

NMVFD recently added 4-new UHF (400mhz) radios to its “front-line” fire apparatus.  The new radio now make it so that the fire department can directly communicate with all agencies, public and private, on both sides of the Ohio River.  The five new radios allow us to be able to make direct contact with the agencies that we most frequently work with and a few that we may only occasionally work with, Couch said.

What all of this means to the public is that more swift and functional communications can occur without having to relay information back & forth between dispatch centers where operators are usually quite busy.  In the end, it all means better, more efficient service, for the public that we serve and adds another layer of safety for the responders.

Funding for the radios and their installation was paid for through quarterly funds received from the State of WV to the fire department.

PRESS RELEASE

Date:                July 22, 2008
To:                    Area Press
From:               Larry W. Couch, Fire Chief
Re:                   Storms Wreak Havoc Tuesday Morning

 A severe thunderstorm complex wreaked havoc on the New Martinsville Area Tuesday Morning sending the New Martinsville Fire Department to a total of 12-calls in less than 2-hours.

 The majority of the calls began at approx 5:30 AM and ended at around 7:30 AM and were for trees and utility lines down according to Larry Couch, NMVFD Fire Chief. 

 The department responded to calls at:  Sorenson & Mill Streets, 600-Block of Cherry Lane, 700-Block of Cherry Lane, 600-Block of Maple Avenue, 407 Martin Avenue, 500-Block of Martin Avenue, 700-Block of Third Street (WV Route #2), 400-Block of Virginia Street, 300-Block of Vine Street (WV Route #2 South of Fishing Creek, WV Route #2 at Ann Lane, C-Street and Apple Street, for trees and utility lines down.

 There were two additional calls during that same time frame:  A small fire sparked by power lines in the woods to the East of Burlington Road at Tarpan Ridge and a Diesel Fuel spill at WV Route #2 and North Street were also handled.

 Most of the Tree and Utility Line calls were just for us to assure people would stay clear of those areas until utility crews could clear the lines and the debris could be removed, Couch said.  It was reported to us by Mr. Wiley (Arthur) at Main and Virginia Streets that there was a total of 2.3 inches of rain in his rain gauge during that storm period.

 NMVFD responded to the calls with 1-Rescue Truck, 2-Engines, a Command Vehicle and the departments ATV, along with 6-Personnel.

 It seems that there is a path of damage from fishing creek to Virginia Street and North-East to Apple Street and C-Street at the top of the hill on Virginia Street.  Most other areas received damage that appeared to be minor.  The greatest damage of all appeared to be at 407 Maple Avenue where a tree did considerable damage to the home as it fell, Couch said.  No Injuries were reported to the Fire Department.

PRESS RELEASE

Date:               July 18, 2008

To:                   Area Press

From:               Larry W. Couch, Fire Chief

Re:                   Body Recovered From Fishing Creek

New Martinsville Fire Fighters, Police, Tyler County OES Personnel and the Wetzel County Sheriffs Department continued their search in Fishing Creek at the New Martinsville Marina Friday morning at 8:00 AM and at 11:37 AM, an NMVFD Diver was able to recover the body of a local man.

The incident began at 6:06 PM Thursday, when Wetzel County E-911 received a call of a person who had dove into the water off of the pier at the Marina and never resurfaced.  Wetzel County EMS, New Martinsville Fire & Police along with Paden City Fire Fighters and the Wetzel County Sheriffs Department worked until after dark Thursday evening, in an effort to recover the man.

There seemed to be a lot of mis-information surrounding this incident, according to Fire Chief, Larry Couch.  There was one adult, male, victim in this incident, who’s body was recovered in about 12-13 Feet of water off-of the pier at the Marina, less than 50-feet from where he was last seen to enter the water, Thursday evening.  There did appear to be a delay in notifying responders because the witness’s, who were fishing along Doolin Creek, didn’t realize until approximately 30-Minutes later, that the man had never resurfaced after diving into the creek, until they noticed his personal effects still on the pier.

On the initial incident a quick, manual search was made of the waters along fishing creek in an effort to locate the potential victim, Couch said.  Electronic equipment was brought in and a methodical effort to search the area was conducted with no success going into the nighttime.  One diver was sent into the water Thursday evening to verify what electronic equipment was locating, but we were unable to locate the victim Thursday evening, Couch said.

These waters have very poor visibility and there is an enormous amount of debris in them which makes placing divers into the waters a very dangerous prospect, we use manual and now electronic means to identify points of interest and then send a diver in to ascertain what it is we’re locating electronically, Couch said. 

Additional electronic equipment was donated and loaned to emergency personnel Friday morning and New Martinsville VFD, Police, Sheriffs Deputies and Tyler County OES took to the water, located the victim with the equipment and sent one NMVFD diver into the water to recover the victim.

These water searches are very difficult and often take several days to locate the victims, we are very fortunate to have been able to locate the victim quickly to help give closure to his family and friends, Couch said.

Fourteen NMVFD personnel assisted in the Thursday evening efforts and Nine NMVFD personnel assisted in the Friday morning recovery.

 

PRESS RELEASE

Date:                July 3, 2008
To:                    Area Press
From:               Larry W. Couch, Fire Chief
Re:                   Chemical Release Threatens Hospital

An error in the mixing of chemicals lead to a dangerous chemical reaction resulting in a release of chlorine gas at Wetzel County Hospital on Thursday afternoon.

Wetzel County E911 operators received a call from Wetzel County Hospital at 4:52 PM Thursday reporting the accident and requesting assistance in clearing the gas from the hospital.

New Martinsville Fire Fighters arrived at the hospital at 4:59 PM and encounter an odor similar to that of bleach as they entered to hospital parking lot.  We were advised by hospital maintenance personnel that there had been two chemicals introduced into the water treatment system for the water cooling towers at the facility.

The two chemicals, Sodium Hypochlorite and Biobrom C103 were accidentally introduced together into a treatment tank, by a hospital employee and a contractor from Klear Water Management of Wheeling WV, in the hospitals boiler room. 

The accidental mixture created a reaction of vigorous foaming of the material, generating heat and a small chemical cloud equivalent to chlorine gas, according to New Martinsville Fire Chief, Larry W. Couch.

Our first concern, of course, was for that of the patients and employees of the hospital Couch said.  Our first action was to flush the facility with enormous amounts of fresh air from points remote to the area of the chemicals, we accomplished that using positive pressure ventilation fans and injecting more than 140,000 cubic feet per minute of clear air into the entry’s of the facility with three different ventilation fans, Couch said.

We had our own Hazardous Materials Specialist and Technicians on the scene and, with the assistance of our neighboring fire departments, we were able to shut down the introduction of the chemicals, stop their reaction and prevent all other areas of the hospital from being affected, Couch said.

From the fire fighters, to the hospital staff and Law Enforcement officers, everyone did everything they were suppose to do, and things went the way we would always hope they would in an emergency like this.  We are very happy with the fact that we were able to prevent permeation of the chlorine gas into the facility and that we did not have to disturb or evacuate the sick & injured patients in the facility, Couch said

During the emergency, visitors and non-essential personnel were asked to evacuate the facility, and local EMS agencies were advised to go to other facilities, otherwise the remaining patients and staff were sheltered in place and services remained normal within the hospital.

Responders from New Martinsville VFD & EMS were assisted at the scene by: Paden City Vol. Fire Company, Sardis VFD, PPG Industries, New Martinsville PD, Wetzel County Sheriffs Dept., Folsom VFD & EMS, Wetzel County E911, and Wetzel County EMS.  Other agencies assisting by covering for the agencies involved in the incident included: Clarington VFD, Grandview VFD and Sistersville VFD as well as Sardis and Clarington EMS.

The hospital was returned to normal operation at 6:20 PM and the last units departed the scene at 7:04 PM.

PRESS RELEASE

Date:               June 28, 2008

To:                   Area Press

From:               Larry W. Couch, Fire Chief

Re:                   City Council visits Fire Department

Present and incoming New Martinsville City Council members visited the New Martinsville Fire Departments, Ohio Street Station on Saturday, June 28, 2008 for an informal orientation and overview of the fire department, its personnel, equipment, value to the community and overall needs for the future.

I was thrilled with the attendance by the council members, the only council member not here for the visit was Chris Bachman, he had to work and we fully understand that, said Fire Chief, Larry Couch.

This is the first time we have ever done anything like this, we wanted council to know the value of the services of the department and what they are getting for their money.  This will help when we come to them with our requests and I think that it helped to put an imbedded idea of what we are faced with and the variations of equipment that are required to handle the calls we are dispatched too, Couch said.

There were many questions and concerns expressed and discussed throughout the visit as well as a tour of all of the departments vehicles including the Fire Prevention & Children Safety House and Special Operations Trailer.

Attending the gathering was: Mayor elect Lucille Blum, Councilman elect Joel Potts, and Council members Holly Grandstaff, Steve Pallisco, Keith Nelsen, Dorris Fannin, and City Recorder, Bonnie Shannon.  Also present was Judy Hill of the Wetzel Chronicle.

We have always enjoyed a good working relationship with council and we feel this visit will only help to improve and enhance that on-going relationship, Couch said