GWGVFD PROVIDES EXTRA SERVICE DURING STORM

When two feet of snow hit Montgomery County on Presidents Day weekend extra members of the Gaithersburg - Washington Grove Volunteer Fire Department reported for duty. Volunteers staffed four-wheel-drive vehicles, increased the staffing on fire and emergency medical units at our Stations 8 and 28 and allowed the upgrading of Ambulance 88 from a basic to an advanced life-support unit.

Because many residential streets were buried under more than two feet of snow a four-wheel-drive unit accompanied Medic 89 or Medic 88 on advanced life support calls. At times our Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians had to walk to victims through streets that were impassable to vehicles. Some patients had to be moved from their homes to the Medic Unit in the four-wheel-drive vehicles.

A County snow plow was assigned to assist the Gaithersburg stations during two, twelve-hour periods when the storm was the strongest. It cleared streets that even four-wheel-drive couldn't access.