Windham News : fire department

A little longer for Windham High School access road decision

Salem Editor — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:33:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Windham school superintendent and School Board member Michael Hatem told the town’s Board of Selectmen they need a few more weeks to come up with a viable plan for a second access road for the new high school. The Board of Selectmen held an informational meeting on the issue during their regular weekly selectmen’s meeting on Monday, Sept. 29.

Fire Chief Tom McPherson led the board and the public through a PowerPoint presentation outlining the fire codes that justify intalling the second access before the school can open in September 2009 and showing aerial photos to support his case for the road.

McPherson said he is urging the School Board to act quickly on planning the access road, as there is less than a year left before the school’s opening to get all the planning, engineering, and construction completed. Superintendent Frank Bass said in a letter to the Board of Selectmen that the School Board would like until Oct. 29 to come up with a final plan.

“Certainly the board will work its very best to come to a timely decision as quickly as they can,” Bass said. “They just wanted extra time to get it right and explore every option.”

Hatem, speaking as a citizen and not a School Board member, said the board will come to the right solution soon, but needs some time to sort out the options.

“I think we just need a little time to turn down the heat. We’re going to solve this,” Hatem said.

During a special vote at the primary election on Sept. 9, Windham voters turned down a $1.25 million bond proposal for a paved town road that would cover the unpaved portion of London Bridge Road, extending it from Route 111 to Castle Hill Road. At the vote in March, a similar proposal on the school district ballot was also voted down.

The fire and police officials in town supported that proposal because it complied with fire and safety codes and would also function as a means of accessing the western side of town more quickly, McPherson said.

“The issue with this is it was the only presentation that we saw,” said McPherson. “That was the proposal put before us, and we, as public safety officials, supported that because of reasons other than the high school.”

Selectman Charles McMahon called for the meeting, inviting the School Board, the state fire marshal, and a representative from the state’s Department of Education.

“It’s real, it’s palpable and there’s real anxiety,” McMahon said of the community’s worry over the access road issue, adding he’s gotten calls from residents asking whether they should explore other high school options for their children in case the school doesn’t open as planned.

The state fire marshal’s office and the Department of Education both sent letters to the town saying they would not attend the meeting because the access road is a town issue.

According to the National Fire Protection Association’s universal fire code, which McPherson explained during the presentation, “more than one fire department access road shall be provided when it is determined by the (authority having jurisdiction) that access by a single road could be impaired by vehicle congestion, condition of terrain, climatic conditions or other factors that could limit the access.”

The code further states that any access road should be at least 20 feet wide with a vertical clearance of no less than 13 feet 6 inches, and should be able to carry emergency vehicles and be properly maintained.

During the presentation, McPherson showed several aerial photos of the school taken by state police in helicopter flyovers, and also photos of some maintenance roads coming off of London Bridge Road that service the athletic fields.

Those two maintenance roads are only about 14 feet wide, said McPherson, and do not meet the requirements for a second access according to the fire code.

Police Chief Gerald Lewis said the second access is important in case of an accident or other catastrophic event that could block London Bridge Road, which has some blind curves and steep grades off the edges of the road in some spots.

Lewis pointed out that everything from buses, propane delivery trucks and cars containing new student drivers will be traveling along that road either to or from the school.

“It takes one incident anywhere along here for us to have difficulty getting in and getting out,” Lewis said.

McPherson also used photos to point out the heavily wooded areas surrounding the school, saying there was no safe place to evacuate students without the access road being present.

Lewis said any incident of school violence would pose a problem in trying to evacuate and account for students in the woods, saying he and the chief would be the ones on the hook for any mishaps in the evacuation procedure.

Windham official must solve high school access road issue

Salem Editor — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:34:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

State and local officials said the town is not in serious jeopardy of losing state building aid for the new high school after voters rejected a second access road required under the state fire code.

In order to receive financial aid from the state for the construction of a new school, the structure’s plans must be approved and the building must meet fire codes, both at the local and state level. With the recent rejection of a proposal to construct a $1.25 million secondary access road to the future high school, required by Fire Chief Tom McPherson for the school to open, some worry that the state may rescind funding for the construction project.

State aid would cover 30 percent of the cost to build the new high school, roughly $17 million of the $55 million project.

“If you don’t build by the code, you don’t get the money,” said Selectman Charles McMahon. “It’s the view of the people in Windham who have not accepted that there is a higher jurisdiction and the state Department of Education that clearly states in their codes and their rules what it takes to build this high school. We need to respond to that, not with opinion, but with statements of fact.”

In an e-mail sent to town officials, Ed Murdough, of the New Hampshire Department of Education, reiterated state fire codes must be met in order for the town to receive building aid. Chief McPherson, who has publicly stated he will not allow the school to open without a second exit, has the authority to enforce the code if in “his judgment there is a likelihood that the primary access could be blocked during an emergency situation,” according to Murdough.

According to Murdough, the only scenario in which the school would lose state funding would be if the building never opened, an outcome he called “not realistic.”

“My expectation is that they’re going to work it out,” he said. “How they work it out, I don’t know, but they’ve got to resolve that locally.”

In the meantime, McMahon has proposed a meeting between state and local authorities to hash out the problem and determine a solution on Sept. 29.

“It’s in law, it’s irrefutable, and sadly, there are those that don’t except that. I don’t want to mortgage our future and children’s safety on opinion,” McMahon said. “Let’s get the authorities in the same room.”

According to McMahon, close to eight months would be needed to construct a second access road, leaving the town with a tight schedule to fulfill the requirements to ensure the school opens on time next fall. McMahon said that the rapidly closing window of time to resolve the issue had spurred the board to get involved in finding a viable solution.

“We have to sit down and just meet with everybody involved and try and resolve this,” said Selectman Roger Hohenberger. “I can’t foresee an instance where the school can open and we won’t get 30 percent state aid. I can’t foresee an instance where the school won’t open.”

Access road and conservation easement to be discussed at Aug. 12 Windham deliberative session

Salem Editor — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:17:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Windham voters who want to weigh in on constructing a second access road to Windham High School, currently under construction, and a proposed conservation easement in the town forest area should attend a deliberative session on Tuesday, Aug. 12, at 7 p.m., at the Town Hall.

The two articles on the warrant will be included as part of the vote in the Sept. 9 primaries.

Article 1 asks voters to authorize the town to secure a $1.25 million bond to build a new town road over the existing London Bridge Road for the purpose of providing a second access to the high school.

The proposed plan includes extending the road to Castle Hill Road, allowing emergency vehicles to more easily access the western side of town, cutting down on emergency response time.

Earlier this month, the Board of Selectmen unanimously approved the plans for the 24-foot wide paved road after much debate on whether the road needed to be a standard sized paved road or a smaller gravel one. A similar ballot question was included on the school district ballot in March, but failed to get the 60 percent majority vote needed to pass.

Many residents at a public hearing on the parameters of the access road on Monday, July 21, said building a paved town road was going overboard.

Both the state Board of Education and Windham Fire Chief Tom McPherson have said the school needs a secondary access road before it can open in September 2009.

The Windham Fire Department has been a proponent of paving the road and making it full size to allow for emergency vehicles to pass easily and to ensure the road is properly maintained. Potholes would be prevalent on a gravel road, said Assistant Fire Chief Robert Leuci at the public hearing, making it difficult to plow and likely more expensive to maintain.

If voters approve the bond, the first payment would be made in September 2009 in the amount of $175,000, including the principal payment and interest. The amount of the payments would decrease by $5,000 yearly up until the end of the bond payment schedule in 2018.

Selectman Roger Hohenberger, charged with looking into the costs of a paved road versus a gravel one, said at the hearing a paved 24-foot road would only cost $150,000 more than a gravel road, adding the gravel would be much more expensive to maintain over the years due to erosion.

At the weekly meeting on Monday, Aug. 4, the board heard comments from the public on the second article on the ballot, regarding putting two parcels of land off of Goodhue road into a third-party conservation easement, which would be held by the Exeter-based Southeast Land Trust.

The Windham Conservation Commission currently owns the land, but if the land is placed with a third-party group it becomes eligible for a reimbursement for most of the purchase cost because of the land’s proximity to Salem’s water supply.

The parcels are separated by other town-owned pieces of land in the town forest, one of them about 53 acres and the other about 20 acres.

The question of whether to put the land in trust sparked debate among the selectmen, a couple of whom felt the parameters of the easement were too strict.

A conservation easement would limit the use of the land and prevent building residential or commercial/industrial structures on it, and getting out of the easement would be impossible without going through the eminent domain process.

The town would also have to reimburse Southeast Land Trust for part of the cost of the land in that event, something Hohenberger said was unfair despite his support of conservation.

“I think that restriction is going to potentially make a lot of people possibly vote the wrong way,” said Hohenberger.

Selectman Galen Stearns agreed, saying putting the land in a third-party trust would tie the hands of future town officials and voters.

“I don’t have a crystal ball. I don’t know what the town’s needs are going to be,” he said.

Ellen Snyder, a representative of Southeast Land Trust, said the whole point of a conservation easement was to preserve it forever.

Resident Margaret Case said the town can do a good enough job of preserving the land without putting it in the hands of a third party.

“Why can’t we trust the people in this town to do the right thing?” she asked, reiterating Stearns’ point that no one could be sure of the town’s needs in the future. “We don’t know what we are going to need perhaps to survive in the next 30 or 40 years. My final word on this is, I hope the people vote ‘no.’”

Selectman Bruce McMahon, who helped get the article on the ballot, said the easement should have been part of the Conservation Commission’s purchase to begin with.

He added the easement was needed to get the state funding reimbursement, which would amount to about $177,000, in order to purchase other pieces of land for conservation. Typically, conservation land is purchased through money collected from current use penalties.

“What’s the purpose? It’s funds, because we’re running out of current use penalty land,” McMahon said.

Firefighters limit damage to Windham home

Salem Editor — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:54:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

The cause of a two-alarm fire in a two-story colonial home at 81 Searles Road on Wednesday, July 23, is under investigation by fire officials, though witnesses say the house was struck by lightning.

The fire was reported at about 5 p.m. by neighbors, just as severe thunderstorms blanketed the region. More than 30 firefighters from six different stations, including nearby Salem and as far away as Londonderry and Hampstead, fought the fire for more than an hour before bringing the blaze under control a little past 6 p.m.

No one was home at the time of the fire.

Arriving home from a trip to Maine just as firefighters began to douse the flames, the owners – Heidi Heath and Kevin Tsung – declined to comment.

Windham and Pelham fire officials have not yet determined the cause of the blaze, despite an eye-witness report that lightning struck the house.

“It was a lightning strike. I thought it hit my truck,” said Plinio Mejia, a Comcast employee installing cable in a neighbor’s home. “I saw a little smoke come up from the top and when I got closer it was worse.”

Mejia said the house burst into flames within a span of five minutes, at which time he tried to force his way into the home, thinking someone might be inside. After a neighbor told him that the owners were out of town, Mejia gave up and moved away from the fire that had already begun to consume the attic, roof and rear of the home.

The lightning hit the house around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 23, according to Mejia.

“There was lightning everywhere,” he said.

Working cooperatively in three teams of four or five, firefighters from across the area battled the fire from within the home, leaving the blaze isolated in the attic with no avenue to expand in what Derry Fire Chief George Klauber called a “phenomenal stop.”

“What saved us here was that (the firefighters) were very aggressive about getting into the house,” Klauber said, surrounded by fire officials from neighboring towns at the command vehicle across the street from the home.

With Salem’s ladder truck holding the fire at bay from above, teams inside first contained the fire and then pushed their way into the attic to bring the blaze under control.

Four hoses pumped water into the home, three from the front and a fourth in the rear.

“Interior hose lines are the main way to control the fire,” Klauber said. “You don’t want to push the fire from the outside, you want to put people inside and push the fire out.”

Crews going inside rotated as their oxygen tanks ran low, keeping constant pressure on the fire and limiting the fire damage to the attic and rear of the house.

Klauber estimated the damages to be roughly over $100,000 and limited to only the top floors of the home. A lot of the systems inside the house remained undamaged, he said, and that while the house had been declared unlivable for the time being, it could be repaired.

“They’ve got some substantial work ahead. Extensive rehabilitation for smoke and water (damage) in the house, but it can be repaired. The (firefighters) did a great job,” Klauber said. “We had some experienced firefighters.”

Windham's school and town may join to buy defibrillators

Salem Editor — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:30:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

The Windham School Board and the Fire Department are looking to pool their resources to purchase 11 new automated external defibrillators for town buildings and the new Windham High School.

The Windham Board of Selectmen gave their conditional approval to the Fire Department to waive the bid process pending some further price shopping after Assistant Fire Chief Robert Leuci explained at a meeting on Monday, June 2, that he believed the model being sought was the best value.

Six of the defibrillators will go into the high school and the town’s five will go into the library, town hall, senior center, transfer station and Griffin Park, said Leuci.

Only two town buildings, the administrative building and the cable station, will not have defibrillators, but both have easy access to them at the town hall and senior center, respectively. In purchasing the machines together, the distributor being considered is offering a 20 percent discount, Leuci said, for the defibrillators and the required cabinets required for them.

The model being sought, a Phillips FRx 2, is a newer model that will result in cost savings long term, said Leuci.

“With the on-site machines, we have to replace the pads every two years. This saves us about $1,500 each year on purchasing and replacing child pads,” Leuci said.

The child pads emit a different charge than the adult pads. The model has a key to automatically switch the defibrillators to the child pad setting.

There is $8,500 budgeted for the town’s five defibrillators. To buy five of the FRx 2 machines, the department will run about $1,300 over budget, said Town Administrator David Sullivan.

Windham Fire Department hires four

Salem Editor — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:20:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

The Windham Fire Department will have four new firefighters by early July and hopefully a new deputy chief by the end of that month, according to Fire Chief Tom McPherson.

Currently, the department has 12 firefighters, including one lieutenant for each of four shifts. The four new additional firefighters would all be entry level, bringing the department to16 firefighters and closer to state standards, with five firefighters per shift, McPherson said.

“Right now, we’ve narrowed it down to a field of nine candidates,” McPherson said. “From those nine, they’ll have a chief interview.” McPherson said the interview was scheduled for Wednesday, May 21.

“Based on those interviews, we will move forward to recommend to the Board of Selectmen four individuals for conditional employment,” McPherson said, adding the employment would not be made permanent until background checks had been performed.

At the same time, McPherson said, the department is seeking a deputy chief of fire prevention after the department went before the Board of Selectmen to proposed changes to their administrative structure.

Robert Leuci, formerly the deputy fire chief, was promoted in title only to the position of assistant fire chief, a new addition to the department’s structure, giving him more authority in the chief’s absence, McPherson said.

“Overall, the scope of my job hasn’t changed. Operations and training are still my main responsibilities,” said Leuci.

There are nine candidates for the new deputy chief position, which would cover the responsibilities formerly held by the fire inspector, Ken Whicker.

Whicker stepped down when a firefighter retired. He applied for a lateral move in the department and got it, McPherson said. There are no in-house candidates for the deputy position, McPherson added.

“His main focus will be fire prevention, inspection, education and investigation,” said McPherson of the new deputy chief position. “If we have a fire, the deputy will assume those roles in the command structure, then go into the investigative process.”

Windham was one of only three fire departments in the state to receive the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant this year.

The other two towns were Salem and Dover, McPherson said. The SAFER grant is offered through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and is designed to help towns boost their fire department staffing levels by paying a portion of the salaries for new hires for the first four years. The amount of the grant diminishes yearly, and in the fifth year the town assumes the entire cost of the employees.

Voters approved the spending of $182,230 to hire four firefighters for the 2008-09 year, a part of which will be offset by the SAFER funds.

Once they’re hired, McPherson said, the new firefighters will spend a week getting familiar with the department rules and regulations, the building and the staff.

After that, they will each be assigned to a shift for three months, and will rotate through the remaining three shifts for a one-year period before they get a set shift, McPherson said.

The new firefighters will be nonunion for the first year, and will be paid between $37,000 and $45,000 depending on their experience level, and the deputy chief will make between $58,568 and $71,188, based on qualifications and experience, McPherson said.

“Even putting these four firefighters on, which will give us a daily manpower of five firefighters per shift, we’re still under the manpower,” McPherson said. “It’s going to take us some time, and we need to ramp up.”

Fire needs debated in Windham

Salem Editor — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 01:13:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

Adding four new firefighters by using a federal grant to offset some of the cost was one of the issues debated during Windham’s deliberative session of Town Meeting.

Selectmen are seeking to bring on the additional firefighters, who would also be emergency medical technicians, if a warrant article is approved by voters in March.

Passage of the warrant article would also allow selectmen to use a federal Security Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant to defray some of the costs through 2012.

Roger Hohenberger, the sole selectman to vote against recommending the article, said during the Saturday, Feb. 9, session that the town would spend roughly $1.1 million to receive $421,000.

Hohenberger said he believes that the department is running efficiently with the manpower it has now.

“The need for the firefighters is in the future,” he said to a small group of voters gathered in the Golden Brook School gymnasium.

Another selectman, Margaret Crisler, supports the hiring, citing the town’s fast growth and new commercial development. The town could use the extra firefighters now and acquiring federal money to add them is prudent, she said.

Deputy Fire Chief Robert Leuci Jr. told the audience that in the past 10 years, service calls to the department have increased 69 percent. Currently about a third of the calls come in when workers are already out answering calls.

A large increase in calls is expected when the state Department of Transportation begins to widen I-93, Leuci said. While demand for service is rising, fewer call firefighters are available, and other communities who provide mutual aid are experiencing their own growth, Leuci said.

“We don’t think it’s fair to expect that from other communities,” he added.

Voters considered 28 other articles during the meeting but only a few of them generated debate. Voters added language to an article specifying that a proposed transfer of 16 acres of recreation and conservation land to the school district is to be used specifically for a football stadium, athletic fields and ancillary support facilities.

School Board members are asking voters to accept the land, to accommodate the stadium and three additional fields, in exchange for 40 acres of school district land. Some residents didn’t like the idea of giving up the land, while others supported the swap.

“They have a demonstrated need for this land,” said Planning Board member Ross McLeod.

Voters also made minor changes to a revised blasting ordinance. Under the proposed rules, blasting would be permitted only between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. weekdays and not allowed on weekends and town-observed holidays.

Without any debate, the selectmen’s proposed $11,645,020 operating budget, taken up at the end of the meeting, was forwarded to the March 11 ballot. If the budget and all money warrant articles pass, and officials receive the revenues they expect, the town’s share of the property tax rate will increase roughly 34 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

During the meeting, Town Administrator David Sullivan presented the Volunteer of the Year award to Larry Kaufman, who drives a town-owned van that brings residents to stores and medical appointments.

Capt. Patrick Yatsevich, who returned to work last year after taking a leave of absence to fight cancer, was honored as the town’s Employee of the Year.

Lightning causes Windham fire

Salem Editor — Wed, 16 May 2007 18:44:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

A million-dollar home in Windham was destroyed by fire last week after being hit by lightning.

The owners were away in Mexico when firefighters from several communities fought the blaze at 1 Timberlane Road during the evening of Thursday, May 10.

“I was on my way home and saw smoke,” said Linda Moore, one of dozens of onlookers who watched firefighters use water hoses to attack the fire. “I was hoping it wasn’t my house, not that I wish this on anyone. What a terrible thing to happen.”

Fire Chief Tom McPherson said the area was hit by “some sort of microburst” – featuring rain, thunder, lightning and hail – shortly before 6 p.m.

Five residences were hit by lightning at the same time, but the house on Timberlane Road was the only one that caught fire.

“There was no one in the residence,” McPherson said. “Thank God for that.”

According to town assessor records, the house is owned by Jose M. and Maria A. Azevedo. It sits on 2.09 acres and is assessed at $1,011,900.

“It’s quite devastating,” said Moore, who, like many people, photographed the blaze. “I think it has to be every homeowner’s worst nightmare.”

A man standing across the road from the house, who said he was the owners’ son but declined to give his name, said his parents were vacationing in Mexico. They had been gone about a week, he said. Told of the fire, they were booking an early flight home.

“No one got hurt,” he said. “That’s a good thing.”

The man held his young son as he watched firefighters battling the blaze.

“He’s kind of sad,” the man said. “His grandpa’s house is on fire.”

Deanna Missert, who lives two houses down the street at 5 Timberlane Road, walked over to them with her three children, Kaley, Justin and Brittany. The kids gave the boy a box of Bendo’s, and Deanna gave the boy a soft pat on the back.

Missert said her sister-in-law, Mary, was at a local school when Mary’s husband called her and told her not to come home because golf-ball sized hail was falling. Mary drove to Deanna’s house, instead, and told them their neighbor’s house was on fire.

Deanna’s husband, Tom, stayed with their kids and called 911 while Deanna rushed to the burning house. A man and a woman were already there, going around the house to see if anyone was home, she said.

“It (the fire) just spread across the roof,” Tom Missert said.

When the first crew of Windham firefighters opened a door to the house’s attic, the fire was so large they had to back off, according to McPherson.

“Our first arriving company made a valiant effort to get inside to control the fire,” Lt. Fire Chief Robert Leuci told reporters. “Unfortunately, it got ahead of them too fast. Conditions became untenable, and we had to pull them out and made a call for mutual aid.”

The fire is under investigation, but McPherson said his department believes lightning was the cause, citing the strange weather system that wreaked havoc and witness accounts.

Firefighters from at least a dozen communities helped battle the blaze. Because Windham lacks a municipal water system, water had to be transported to the scene.

Tania Ellis, watching the fire at 3 Timberlane Road, saw firefighters drawing water from the swimming pool behind the burning house.

Melanie Dow was watching the fire with several people around 8 p.m. They gasped when a section of a stone wall on the front of the house collapsed.