12/21/2012 wind storm with 45 mph gusts.

At approximately 0920 on Friday 12/21 the East Greenbush Fire Department was dispatched to a building collapse at Goff Middle school located on Gilligan Road. Engine 8 along with cars 1 and 4 responded immediately as they were just finishing with another call on the North end of town. The East Greenbush communications center was receiving multiple calls with conflicting information reporting a building collapse of one wing.         Units arrived to find that the structure had not collapsed but the roof had torn off. School staff immediately evacuated the students and staff out of the affected area while first responders began assessing the damage. Car 1 (Hitchcock) had command while car 3 (Lehmann) had interior operations. First due crews were sent to the roof to assess damage as well as secure loose material that was still flying off the roof. Crews found multiple exhaust fans and heaters were ripped off the roof leaving exposed wires. Power was then shut off for the whole wing that was affected. Members from the EGFD assisted with evacuation of the students as well as escorting them in small groups back to lockers to retrieve essential items. All students and staff were sent home early due to the damage.

When a call like this is received we all pray for the best possible outcome and that is exactly what happened on this call. Multiple agencies within the town of East Greenbush operated on this scene, East Greenbush Fire Department, East Greenbush Police, Bruen Rescue, East Greenbush building department, East Greenbush highway and water department as well as many staff and representatives from the East Greenbush School District.         Car 1 operated with 3 engines, 1 rescue and car 4 with a total of 22 members. Crews were placed back in service at 12 noon only to be activated many more times for the day. We would like to thank our brothers from CHFD who handled some of our calls while units operated at the school. For the day EGFD ran a total of 19 calls.

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