By Jason Schreiber
The Union Leader
HAMPTON, N.H. — The conditions couldn’t have been much worse when a powerful ocean storm roared up the coast last Thursday night.
Winds were howling at hurricane force and streets were being blocked by fallen trees, power lines, and floodwaters.
Then the emergency calls started coming.
Hampton firefighters scrambled to provide help, but Fire Chief Chris Silver said it wasn’t easy, especially when the power went out at the fire station on Ashworth Avenue along Hampton Beach.
As firefighters were tied up at other storm-related calls, a disaster began to unfold at the beach. Something caused the Surf Hotel on Ocean Boulevard to go up in flames around midnight, and within minutes, the 5-alarm fire fueled by the fierce winds had spread to the Happy Hampton Arcade, Mrs. Mitchell’s gift shop and two other buildings.
When the power went out, firefighters were forced to abandon their station closest to the fire scene — one of two fire stations in town — because the generator wouldn’t run to keep it operating, Silver said.
With no power to open the electrical overhead doors and the manual override equipment on the outside corroded from the harsh elements, firefighters had no choice but to leave a fire engine sitting in the beach station as the block of businesses burned nearby.
Silver said one fire engine had left the beach fire station before the power went out to respond to a small basement fire on Winnacunnet Road. The engine was able to respond to the beach fire, but getting to the scene was tough for many of the more than 100 firefighters who rushed to the beach from 40 different departments.
Silver said the first firefighters arrived from just north of the blaze, but they were delayed by about five minutes because of the conditions.
“Several roads were closed that affected the routes we could take,” Silver said.
Despite their challenges, firefighters managed to keep the fire from spreading to other blocks and potentially wiping out more of the hotels, condominiums and other businesses that line the popular summer destination.
“Thank God this wasn’t the middle of summer. It was bad, but without the fire department responding like they did it could have been a lot worse,” said Doc Noel, president of the Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce.
Fire officials still don’t know what started the fire, but they do know that the conditions they faced were about the worst they had seen.
Silver said the winds — gusting between 60 and 90 mph — were something he’s never experienced at the beach.
Police Lt. Thomas P. Gudaitis hasn’t seen winds like that either.
Gudaitis got a bird’s eye view of the fire scene and other damage along the coast when he flew over the coast in a state police helicopter. He said he’s been on the Hampton Police Department for more than 20 years and has never seen such extensive wind damage.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said yesterday. “There was a lot of roof damage to individual properties and it varied from a few shingles here and there to three-quarters of a roof gone.” Many roofs had blue tarps covering the damage, most of which isn’t easily seen from the ground, Gudaitis said.
The town’s emergency management office is now seeking information from owners of private homes and businesses damaged in the storm. The information is being collected to determined whether the town meets federal disaster guidelines and the criteria for receiving individual assistance for repairs and economic losses to businesses.
To meet the guidelines, the town said a home must be considered the primary residence and property damage or economic loss can’t already be covered by insurance.
Copyright 2010 Union Leader Corp.
All Rights Reserved