View from the Green

By Colleen Gundlach

Most writers have their preferred ways of getting news firsthand. Richard Castle had Beckett and his other contacts in the police department; Murphy Brown had Phil’s Bar; and, of course, Jimmy Olsen had Superman. But most everyday reporters aren’t so well-endowed with great sources of information. Personally, I rely on the scanner app on my cell phone, and what I heard when the tones went off at 5:45 a.m. on Nov. 5 was devastating and, unfortunately, not fiction.

That morning on the scanner I heard the voices of people I have known for many years—friends and neighbors—speaking calmly but with intense urgency as they described the scene of a tractor trailer that had crashed on Route 44. With relief, I heard them talking of the driver being out of the truck. Then I listened incredulously as they described 8,200 gallons of gasoline flowing out of the truck and down the hill toward Norfolk center. 

As I listened, I imagined what it must be like for those Norfolk men and women who responded to this call. They had left their beds and their families to respond to an accident in order to help someone who may be injured. They voluntarily went out to help, but soon faced perhaps their biggest challenge in their tenures as firefighters and ambulance personnel.

I imagined what it must be like to help that driver out of the truck while standing in gasoline, with the truck up against a utility pole, not knowing if there were electrical wires that could fall and result in an explosion. I was thinking that soon the first responders would be drenched in gasoline as a result of their work to make sure the driver was safe. 

While the rescue was being conducted, I heard a terse call asking the Litchfield County Dispatcher to contact the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). That call, so early in the event, made it possible for the hazmat and environmental specialists from that agency to be on their way without delay. I heard someone ask if Command wanted him to bring sand. The reply was quick and in the affirmative. As I listened, the fire police and EMTs began gathering, and firefighter, ambulance and environmental crews from throughout the area were on the way to assist. 

From subsequent press releases from the town, most people know the rest of the story. Through the skill, experience and quick work of Norfolk’s volunteers, the gasoline was stopped before it reached the Blackberry River. The work they did that day was outstanding and exceptional and kept this environmental disaster from being much worse.

The work of the volunteers didn’t end the day of the spill. For several weeks they were busy assisting the DEEP officials and other environmental agencies, the National Guard and the state Department of Motor Vehicles truck squad and numerous other agencies in attempting to limit the environmental damage, to monitor detours and to plan for maintaining the health and safety of the people of Norfolk. And through all this our volunteers were dealing with the questions and concerns of the townspeople. Trying to keep up with these questions and concerns—and criticisms—both online and in person must have taken hours each day. Check out the Emergency Management Facebook page to see just a bit of it.                        

Norfolk’s Department of Emergency Management volunteers, the firefighters, the ambulance attendants, EMTs, EMRs and many other people who put themselves in danger for all of us that day, and in the trying times since, have shown the ultimate in courage and professionalism. In our little town we are truly blessed to have such strong, reliable people available on a moment’s notice to protect our lives and livelihoods. These people didn’t have to get out of bed that morning at 5:45 a.m., and they didn’t have to work tirelessly for days and weeks on end to protect the town and the local waterways. They could have stayed in bed or they could have quit after the truck was towed away. But they didn’t. They stayed and did the job for which they volunteered and continue to do it today. Norfolk owes our first responders and emergency management team a huge debt of gratitude. 

And no Norfolk resident was injured.