KINGSTON – The severe storms that blew through Ulster County last week pushed the members of the Kingston Fire Department to their limits. Chief Chris Rea took to social media to tout the efforts put forth by his career firefighters.
When the storm arrived on Wednesday, the department began getting dispatched at 8:53 p.m. and responded to multiple calls in the Washington Avenue area for numerous storm-related calls. Twenty-three firefighters on 11 rigs responded to 104 calls for service between 8:53 p.m. and 2 a.m. Chief Rea said that at one point, the department was dispatched to 34 calls in one hour.
The area requiring the most manpower and equipment, Rea noted, was the same one affected by the destructive ice storm in February. Sixteen of his firefighters were back in the neighborhood on Thursday morning responding to calls involving trees and wires down. The firefighters also spent time checking carbon monoxide levels in homes that were using generators for electricity. At one location, the first responders shut off the natural gas that was powering a generator due to a faulty transfer switch.
