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Firefighters train on flood gate in Wellsville

By KRISTI R. GARABRANDT 4 min read

WELLSVILLE -- Firefighters from the Wellsville Fire Department, Wellsville Volunteer Fire Department and Highlandtown Volunteer Fire Department with the assistance of Jeff Zeh from Columbiana CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) spent a hot Saturday morning completing a flood gate training exercise in Wellsville.

The Wellsville FD shut down the bridge coming into town at First and Lisbon streets for the annual training which involved fully erecting the flood gate.

Some of the firefighters present at the training are volunteers and showed up on their own time to train.

Wellsville Fire Chief Barry Podwel said basically the purpose of the training is to get the people that haven't done it for a while refreshed on it.

"We are getting older, and the newer people don't know how to do it," Podwel said. "That's why we try to have training once a year, so they basically know what to do instead of having to come out at 1 a.m. and figure it out… Every year things could change. People come up with better ways of doing things."

For Wellsville Firefighter Josh Cataldo this was his first time assisting with the flood gate. He feels the training was beneficial and will make it easier for him to know what to do in a flood situation.

This year the fire departments had assistance to move the heavy steel frame and wood support beams from Prime Towing which brought in a skid steer to move the pieces so the firefighters would not have to carry them in four-men teams from the storage area.

The flood gates prevent water from a flooding river from flowing into the village as it comes up on the bridge. Podwel said that some water would still get through. But it wouldn't be a flood and drains along the road would catch any water getting through.

The flood gate is constructed by uprighting seven steel frames into brackets in the ground, followed by wooden beams been laid across the frames. Wood planks are placed against the beams. Tarps are then pulled up over it and tied down to the back of it.

Firefighters started removing the beams, columns and planks from the storage area about 9 a.m., and started building the flood gate around 10 a.m. The gate was fully erect at 45 minutes later. Then it came down.

Due to the time it takes to put the gate up, Podwel said if the water is rapidly rising, he will call the fire department out when the river reaches about 11 feet. At 19-feet deep water is moving across the bridge.

The chief was pleased with how quickly the gate went up. There were no issues. But he discovered a couple of timbers that need to be replaced.

Zeh was out for the training because the fire department called for volunteers and that is what CERT does.

Wellsville firefighter Cody Cole said he hated the exercise and has probably participated in putting the gate up about 15 times over the years. Yet he finds the yearly training to be beneficial, especially with new members of the fire department so they gain experience on it. To him the training is basically a refresher. He described it as riding a bike --it always comes right back to you.

Cole feels it important for the younger firefighters to know how to do this. So they have the experience when older ones leave the department and that all members of the department participate in the training so if any changes or made, they know what to expect.

The last times the flood gate had to be put up due to flooding was in fall of 2004 and spring of 2005.

In October, the fire fighters will be training at another gate.

Starting at /week.