Jefferson County first responders had a busy Monday when a rare storm classified as a derecho swept through the area, said Rock Community Fire Battalion Chief Chuck Hill, who capped off the night by monitoring an exploding power transformer in Arnold.
Hill said he was dispatched at about 10:50 p.m. to a power-line pole that was on fire between Lonedell Road and Redwood Drive. When he arrived on the scene, behind the Waste Management building at 1308 Lonedell Road, he discovered the pole was a secondary transmission line.
“There is a lot of power going through those lines,” Hill said. “I called my captain at House 1, and said, ‘I think we should put some foam on it.’ As he was driving over, it started blowing up on me. It was pretty wild.”
Hill said there were three explosions from the transformer before the power shut off and the pole fire went out.
That was one of 84 calls Rock Fire responded to between Sunday and Monday, district spokesman Ron Harder said.
Jefferson County 911 Dispatch also was busy Monday night, when hundreds of calls came in around the county after the storm made its away across the area.
Chief Travis Williams said 911 Dispatch went into emergency operations mode at 6:11 p.m., and nine dispatchers handled 458 calls and dispatched emergency personnel for 381 of those calls over a five-hour period.
“That is about what we regularly do in a 24-hour day,” Williams said. “We were extremely busy.”
Williams said at one point, 911 Dispatch was handling 37 calls for either a fire or an emergency medical situation the night of the storm.
He said 911 Dispatch typically has seven dispatchers working during a shift, but two extra ones were brought in for Monday night. In addition, Saline Valley Fire Protection District Chief Bob Dunn and Antonia Fire Protection District Deputy Chief Matt Krutzsch came to the dispatch center to help organize responses to the calls, Williams said.
“(The chiefs) assist us in the deployment of resources and to make sure all of the engine houses are manned,” Williams said. “The dispatchers did a really good job handling the emergency. As far as I know, everything was handled like it was supposed to be. I appreciate the chiefs coming up and assisting to make sure we were not stripping the emergency services out of one section of the county. They make sure every area is still covered during an emergency.”
One death was reported Monday night in Jefferson County. Tina McCutchen, 51, of Pevely died when an uprooted tree fell on her in the 1000 block of Sunridge Trail, Pevely Police reported.
Thousands of county residents were left without power following the storm, and lots of trees and tree limbs came down during the high winds, but there wasn’t a lot of significant property damage reported around the area, said Warren Robinson, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management.
The National Weather Service classifies a derecho as a widespread, long-lived storm associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.
The weather service’s website says a derecho can produce destruction similar to a tornado, and the damage typically is focused in one direction along a relatively straight swath. A storm is typically classified as a derecho when the damage from the wind extends more than 240 miles and includes wind gusts of at least 58 mph, the weather service said.