As the region continues to dig out from nearly a week and a half of snow events, residents are being asked to be mindful of the infrastructure that keeps them safe.

David Reed, deputy chief of the Weber Fire District, told the Standard-Examiner it’s important for residents and businesses to keep their nearby fire hydrants clear of snow — a point hammered home earlier this week when, following a weekend of snowfall, the main lodge structure at Nordic Valley Ski Resort caught fire early Monday morning.

“The Nordic fire, we had to dig those hydrants out to get water to the engines,” Reed said. “(The trucks) have 500-1,000 gallons, but it actually goes fast. They can use that water to extinguish, but the problem is until multiple people get there, the first crews, when they run out of water, they’ve got to grab shovels and start digging for a hydrant so they can get additional water on there. Obviously, that was a big fire so we needed a lot of water, and until we could get the hydrants exposed and ladder truck set up, it was hard to fight that fire.”

He said it took crews nearly 20 minutes to dig out a hydrant at the Nordic Valley scene only to find it was frozen. Fire crews would ultimately resort to another hydrant just down the road that also had to be dug out. The building was a total loss and the resort remained closed as of Thursday.

“We have a map — we have a computer and all of the hydrants are logged on the computer and that does help us — but still it doesn’t pinpoint exactly where it’s at, so when you’re in a snow bank trying to find it, that really, really slows us down,” Reed said. “They dig it out, connect it, get water and that whole time we’re out of water, the fire’s growing again.”

Reed said they’ve been using social media to get the word out — calling the effort Adopt a Hydrant — to encourage residents or businesses nearest to a hydrant to clear a 3-foot space around the hydrant as well as a path to the street from the hydrant and keep it as clear as possible as long as the snow persists.

He said another problem that was encountered at the Nordic Valley fire should serve as a reminder to rural residents with private roads.

“People need to keep their fire access roads clear,” he said. “It was kind of icy going up there and our four-wheel-drive firetrucks made it. But when the other incoming units got there, like the ladder trucks, they couldn’t get up the hill until the county was able to get there and sand it. It’s hard for two-wheel-drive firetrucks to make it up roads, so if they have private lanes or whatever, they just need to try and keep those clear.”

Reed further reminds residents to check and make sure the area around their gas meter also is kept clear as snow piles up, using the example of an incident at a Powder Mountain vacation home last year.

“They need to keep their gas meter clear and make sure that ice or stuff is not going to fall on their gas meter,” he said. “We had that happen up at Powder last year. … They had a rental and the people had left. The one fortunate thing about it was no one was there. Snow fell on (the meter) and broke it off and gas leaked into the house and it filled up until it got to a combustible level, found an ignition source and blew the house up.”

Though still well short of last winter’s record snowfalls, Reed said there’s still other concerns to keep an eye on.

“The snowfall this year still isn’t quite as bad as it was last year, so we haven’t had the collapses that we had last year,” he said. “But what’s unique about this is we’re getting snowfall, then we’re getting warmer temperatures a little after the last couple storms. So it’s really packed it in and it gets really heavy. Then it gets cold again and really gets icy. … I’m worried about collapses again if we keep getting more snow. It might not be as much as there was last year, but what we do have is really heavy because it melts down.”

Other safety tips being encouraged by the Weber Fire District this winter include:

• Check to make sure smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are working and in-date.
• Be prepared for power outages.
• Only use generators outside.
• Use caution with alternate/emergency heat sources.
• Check in on neighbors and others who need help.

Newsletter