Firefighters Are Facing Flames and Freezing Temps

WINSTON COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – As firefighters battle blazes, they also fought freezing conditions.

When temperatures drop, the hazards rise for firefighters.

The colder it gets outside, the faster water freezes, as firefighters fight flames.

Firefighters face flames and frigid temps this time of year, making their jobs more dangerous.

Below freezing temps and water don’t mix well for firefighters and end up turning into hazards, as they try to put out blazes.

“The water leaking out on the ground and the ground already being cold, or like I said, when you spray you get the mist off of it and if you’ve got a metal ladder and the ice forming on the metal ladder, just presents a problem when you’re climbing up with you know, extra 80 pounds, on and then, you know, having to deal with the ladder moving too,” says Louisville Fire Department Firefighter, Brian Collier.

Slippery conditions, the wind, and one extreme after another, are what firefighters were up against in Winston County at a mobile home fire.

“A lot of water was getting on the firefighters in there when they were trying to get in the attic up there, to get to the fire and the hot spots and stuff, and when they would come out, their whole turnout gear was nothing but ice,” says East Winston Volunteer Fire Chief William Hemphill.

Hemphill says the cold starts to present challenges, even before firefighters get to a scene, and don’t stop once they arrive.

“It starts off, you know, really at the station. Your trucks have got to crank, you know, and all of that, and then you have to, you know, your water freezing. Last night, what we were faced with was our firefighters, you know, when we got here and got them geared up and everything, our air packs were freezing up,” says Hemphill.

Collier says weather in the low teens presents challenges a lot faster, than it would if it was around 30 degrees.

And as hard as it may be to believe, one of those problems is cooling down.

“It still gets hot in the house, but like I said, you go from being able to come back out and cool off slower, to cooling off very quickly, so you know, you do have to kind of be careful not to get cold too fast. It’s just kind of from one extreme to another now,” says Collier.

Collier also says one thing they don’t have to worry about in the super cold weather is the hydrants freezing.

That’s because they’re below the frost line, so the water is where it can’t get cold enough to freeze.