ABOVE: File photo of Danville Fire Chief Aaron Marcott.
Fire Chief Aaron Marcott says that while the high number of recent house fires in Danville did not include one caused specifically by a space heater, the department has indeed witnessed trouble caused by dangerous unconventional ways of helping heat a home; such as with candles, the stove, or the oven. Chief Marcott is telling everyone that all of those things, as well as space heaters taxing your electric outlets, can lead to trouble.
Just the load your putting on your outlets with things like space heaters. We haven’t had a space heater fire yet. But it’s been those type of things; where they’re just trying to generally supplement heating their home in some form or another.
As far as the recent loss of water pressure during the water treatment plant problem goes, Chief Marcott says they were lucky that no fires occurred during the peak of the trouble. But they were ready.
AUDIO: Early on we contacted Aqua. We have a representative there that we deal with regularly, with fire hydrants and things. They assured us that if we needed them to we could just notify them and they could bump the pressure for a short period of time. In the meantime, we contacted some of the rural departments around us who do water supply all the time, and made arrangements with them to come and help us.
Fortunately, by the time the fire on North Logan happened this past weekend, the water pressure was not a problem.
As for the all the ice and freezing rain we just dealt with, Danville Director of Public Works Carl Carpenter says they used about one-quarter of their salt supply; but since they started with a salt dome that’s absolutely full, they still have plenty for the rest of the way.
