In an unusual twist, it was the Fairfield Hose Company that called for help.
And, the community responded in a big way.
“We noticed that in one corner of the building all of a sudden the ceiling was starting to cave in,” Fairfield Fire Chief Jim Hawryliw told WJET.
When crews saw a 12-inch sag in their building’s ceiling, they immediately headed to the roof with shovels.
“We made a decision that we were going to clear some of the snow off. So we called for some mutual aid help; and we had people from all of our fire departments, American Red Cross, the county government, the prison system, the Coast Guard, the National Guard,” Hawryliw said.
Firefighter Charlie Gonzalez said the project was an overall sucess, and one construction company owner says the job took coordination from everyone involved so they didn’t go down with the roof.
“We got it done. We all worked as a team. Good thing our community came along and helped us all, and all we can say is thank you to everybody else that came by and helped out,” he said.
A construction company owner was concerned.
“When I got to the top of the roof, I noticed that the roof was actually bouncing a little bit, which means that it was definitely taking some structural damages from the snow. So, we ended up making sure that everyone was in the proper position to be able to get the snow off the right way,” explained Michael Woodard.
The next step will be to get an inspection on the roof to make sure it’s structurally sound.
