The Harvard Fire Department sent an engine and five firefighters to assist the city of Lawrence in response to a series of gas explosions that ripped through buildings in that area, Sept 13. When Lawrence Emergency Management realized mutual aid was needed to respond to numerous structure fires and reports of gas leaks, the Massachusetts Statewide Fire Mobilization Plan was put into action. Massachusetts is divided into 15 fire districts; Harvard is in Fire District 8. Lawrence requested mutual aid for structural fires, and several districts’ structural task forces were activated, including District 8. Not all districts are activated because enough firefighting resources have to remain in place to cover other major incidents should they occur elsewhere in the state.
Lt. Bill Barton was the officer in charge of the Harvard crew. He was joined by firefighters Robert Curran, John Kenneally, Lt. Justin Warren, and Ben Wilmot. The firefighters left Harvard at 6 p.m. in Engine 4, Harvard’s mutual aid vehicle. The District 8 Structural Task Force, consisting of firefighters and vehicles from Bolton, Fitchburg, Harvard, Lancaster, Leominster, Lunenburg, and Townsend traveled in a convoy to the staging area in Lawrence.
Lt. Barton described the staging area as “a large U, with two lines of fire equipment: ladder trucks in one line and engines in the other, with the Emergency Operations Center, ambulances and state police in the middle.” Barton explained that one ladder truck and two engines were sent out on most calls.
The Harvard and Lunenburg crews’ first assignment was to check a large church in Lawrence. Smoke detectors were going off in the building, but the firefighters found no signs of smoke or fire. Handheld gas meters did not register gas. They reset the detectors and returned to the staging area. They had time to get some food and water while they waited in the queue for their next assignment.
Next, the Harvard crew and four other engine companies were sent to a triple-decker building in Lawrence. Again the building’s fire alarms were going off, but the firefighters metered the building and found no evidence of gas. They reset the detectors and returned again to the staging area. This time they waited in line for an hour. Just as they were getting close to the front of the line, around 1 a.m., they were told they could leave. The Harvard crew and engine were in Westford when they were called back to Lawrence; the decision had been made to go house-to-house to check for fire and gas, and all the crews were needed. Harvard again joined the queue in the staging area, and this time waited an hour and a half. At 3:30 a.m. the Harvard crew was released for the night and returned to Harvard at 4 a.m. on Sept 14.
Lt. Barton said that the Harvard Fire Department has provided mutual aid to other large-scale events, including a tornado that went through Monson, but that this event “was a completely different scale.” “Significant planning and training goes on for large-scale events,” he said, “and while no one has a plan in place to handle 70 simultaneous house fires, this incident was handled very smoothly and effectively.”
Chief Rick Sicard also assisted Lawrence; he covered a 12-hour shift in the Emergency Operations Center starting Friday Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. The chief helped with incident command, including monitoring calls, tracking available crews and vehicles, and deploying teams, while coordinating with staging, EMS, and National Grid.
Later on Friday, District 8 sent a second structural task force to continue the door-to-door checks of Lawrence homes and businesses. It is unclear at this point if the Harvard crew will be asked to return to Lawrence. That depends on the length of the response and what additional mutual aid the city will require.
