By Josie Huang
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
Copyright 2007 Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
BUXTON, Maine — The water pipes gurgled, and Joanie Anderson shuddered.
Experience told Anderson, a retired social worker, that she was hearing the sound of water rising fast in the cellar of her mobile home. As much as 18 inches, as it turned out. Thank goodness she had already called the fire department.
Where others think of the fire department in times of medical emergencies and, well, fires, Anderson knew that firefighters in her rural town help to pump out flooded basements. Firefighters battling deluges may seem counterintuitive at first, but washed-out basements are electrocution hazards, with furnaces and washers and dryers often located there.
“I called and was put on a list and I kept calling back to check where I am,” said Anderson, who was eager to turn her furnace back on.
Small-town residents may worry about having to rely on emergency workers who are largely volunteer, but visits by firefighters to pump out basements are a luxury that only they enjoy. Larger communities have more manpower and resources, but certainly not enough to make house calls for all of the requests that come in.
By contrast, Limerick firefighters had pumped out more than 25 soggy homes by Tuesday afternoon. Crews in Waterboro were overwhelmed by other hazards on Monday, such as downed trees and wires.
But with things quieting down on Tuesday, they chipped away at a list of more than 20 homeowners who had called about their basements, said Lt. Tim Wilkins.
The visits provide a personal touch that residents say is part of the charm of living in a small town.
“That’s how it is here. We help each other out,” said Lewis Anderson, a Buxton firefighter.
Anderson and another firefighter, Ethan Martin-Hunt, had been working since 5 a.m. Tuesday, pumping out the basements of homeowners such as Anderson. They said they would keep going until they were done with everybody on their list. The day before, they had worked about 19 hours.
After finishing up at Anderson’s home and having a quick lunch, the firefighters were back at work, driving past hayfields that resembled marshes and giant fallen trees that lay with their roots sticking out - looking like big game bagged by the nor’easter.
They stopped at the ranch-style home where Amanda Sperrey lives with her husband and three young children.
Sperrey didn’t even know to call the fire department for help with her flooded cellar until her mother told her to try. She looked on gratefully Tuesday afternoon as the firefighters cleared more water in a half-hour than she had with her generator-powered sump pump running for almost a day.
“I’m so happy they’re here,” said Sperrey. “I feel like I should tip them or something.”
The work of the firefighters saved dozens of homeowners potentially hundreds of dollars in damage and the cost of hiring professionals to drain their basements.
Contractors charge an hourly rate, with some quoting about $75 an hour. Towns such as Scarborough offer the phone numbers of contractors to residents who call about their basements.
Scarborough Fire Chief Michael Thurlow said his department cannot afford to help every single household that reports flooding, and reserves its water pumps to assist particularly needy residents.
That was not the case 10 or 20 years ago, he said.
“I do remember doing it for a good many hours when the community was less than half the size of what it is now,” Thurlow said.
Joanie Anderson, who lives alone, said she is grateful that the firefighters are there to help. After making her initial call to the fire department on Monday morning, she received a couple of visits from firefighters who were checking on her safety before they arrived Tuesday morning to pump out her basement.
Lewis Anderson, no relation, urged her to call a heating specialist after they left.
“If you turn (the furnace) on, it might short out and you’ll have to replace it,” he said.
She nodded, and after they left, dutifully got on the phone with her heating company.