Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Bitter cold temperatures are set to take hold across Western New York over the next couple of days, as an arctic airmass will settle across the region. Not only will high temperatures sit in the low teens, but some breezier conditions will provide some potentially dangerous wind chills.
While many will have the luxury of remaining indoors and out of the frigid conditions, there are a number of others that may find themselves out-and-about working and battling the elements.
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While Jamie Dussing, highway superintendent in the Town of Clarence, will do all he can to try and keep his team indoors and safe from the harsh temperatures and wind chills, he knows a job may have to head outdoors, if a situation calls for employees have to be out on the road.
"If we have a tree go down or we have drainage issues, we have to do what we have to do," said Dussing in an interview with WBEN. "We're certainly going to make every attempt to keep the guys and the crews inside working on their plows, working on equipment, working on the building. We have lots of maintenance projects going on within our department, and we hope to ride out the next week or so or, at least, the cold snap, getting work done inside, and keep the guys out of the coldest of the cold temperatures."
Despite wind chills potentially dipping to dangerous levels with this cold air moving into the region, Dussing says there's not much that would keep his team from doing a job that requires the highway department from going to work.
"It would certainly have to be dangerous, either blizzardous or heavy winds or lightning, things of that nature," he said. "We have all the equipment, PPE necessary to work in cold temperatures. We are all prepared to be out in the elements, no matter how cold it is, but we certainly don't want to put people out in harm's way if we don't have to. But sometimes a job calls for you to be out to get something opened up, or prevent an accident from happening."
Dussing adds each employee in his department has a clothing allowance built into their contract, while gloves and most of the PPE needed to stay warm is provided to them.
Firefighters are also going to be ready on standby in these conditions, no matter the circumstance. While North Tonawanda Fire Chief Joe Sikora doesn't want to call it business as usual, he says his guys have done this plenty in the past.
"First and foremost, we are usually a little bit more lax in our uniform requirements. I'm more concerned that the guys are going to be able to stay warm if they're out there fighting a fire than how well pressed their uniform looks," said Sikora with WBEN. "It starts with that, then it goes to their knowledge of our apparatus. They know that if they're going to be outside for an extended period of time, they need to put the pumps into recirculation mode so that the water inside the rigs doesn't freeze up and damage the pumps or the rigs themselves. We have a great relationship with our dispatchers so if the snow gets deeper, they give us hydrant locations so we're not spending time looking for hydrants that may have been buried by snow due to some heavy snowfall. That helps us out. And from that point on, it's just use your head: Dress for the occasion, do what we can to do what we can quick, and take care of business."
If firefighters have to be outside for an extended period of time in these types of conditions, Sikora says there are resources available for the firefighters to stay warm and safe.
"We do have a rehab vehicle that comes to the scenes that is manned by our emergency management office here in the city. That vehicle, we can do vitals, we can let the guys get warm. All the apparatus nowadays are sealed cabs, so we can put multiple people inside to warm them up at scenes, and we'll start fighting fires in, I don't want to say shifts, but with crews so you've got time to warm up and you're not just outside where you've got to worry about the elements and becoming hypothermic," Sikora explained.
Knowing that water and cold temperatures don't get along well, Sikora says one of the biggest concerns in these situations becomes potential damage to an apparatus, and being able to keep an area clean.
"If we're picking up a hose after a fire, a lot of times, we'll have trouble getting the couplers undone. Once you do get them undone, that water flows into the street, and that causes additional concern. So we'll contact our DPW to make sure they can salt the areas so that after we leave, we don't have accidents occurring in the area where we were," Sikora said. "Over the years, I don't want to say we've come up with a dedicated standard operating procedure for the cold weather, however, the guys do know what they need to do to keep themselves safe, to keep the rigs in top-notch shape, and get back to the station before any damage occurs."
Sikora also asks anyone that may have a fire hydrant located in front of their house to help clear them whenever possible to better assist firefighters if services are called.
As for other services like linemen and technicians, their job certainly becomes a bit more challenging when conditions turn cold.
"Especially with fingers, because we're working with our fingers a lot. You can have your gloves and stuff on, but once you're up on a pole and stuff like that, it's really hard to be working with real thick gloves, so you've really got to take it off," said Cliff Jozwiak, cable technician with Spectrum Internet.
Jozwiak feels the worst conditions to work in is when it gets windy outside.
"Usually if it's just snowing, it's not bad. It's when you get 33 degrees, wet snow with rain, and the coldness between trying to keep your hands dry and with the wind is what really bites you," Jozwiak said.
When preparing to work in the bitter cold, Jozwiak says the more layers you have on, the better off you're going to be.
"It's all about keeping yourself warm, try not to get too wet, because once everything gets wet, you're really not going to get so warm," he said. "What I would do is I always got Under Armor, and then either a sweatshirt or something like that, and then a nice coat with a hoodie on it. We have some nice lined gloves and stuff like that, and some heavy pants and waterproof boots, wool socks, that kind of stuff."
And while out in the extreme cold, Jozwiak says it's about taking advantage of getting warm in any way possible.
"Most of the time, you're going to be warmed up in your van. If it gets too cold, you start up the van for a little bit," he said. "Plus, with my job, I'm inside and outside, which sometimes is good and bad. You could be working outside and you go into someone's home and it's warm, but if your clothes got snow and everything on them and then it thaws, then you can warm up and go back outside and it's minus-5 degrees out, and then your pants are frozen again. There are ways of doing it. If you've been doing it for a long time, like I've been doing it, you kind of know what to wear, what to do."