Friday, May 1, 2020

Schuylkill County Fire Crews Respond to Gilberton Overnight to Prevent Flooding


Early Friday morning, Schuylkill County fire crews were called to Gilberton to prevent any major flooding to the borough.

Over a century ago, Gilberton was given the name "Ducktown" by the locals because of how frequently it flooded. The borough itself is built on top of old mines and much of the water still enters the basements of the homes, even on a dry day.

When Gilberton receives over 2 inches of rain like it did on Thursday, it usually prompts a couple pump details.

The borough has a pumphouse on the west end of the borough that assists in moving water downstream and away, but due to reconstruction of the Route 924 bridge, that caused some issues late Thursday and into Friday.

Late Thursday, water began to rise near the pumphouse and caused some minor flooding on Railroad Street.

It was early Friday, around 12:30am, when about fire crews were called to the scene to assist with moving water.

On the initial call, Mahanoy City's West End Fire Company, Girardville's Rangers Hose Company, and Mahanoy Plane's American Hose were called to the scene.

Girardville's Fire Chief Frank Zangari said "We have a blocked pipe somewhere because of the construction. We are going to pump the water down the road to the other side of the bridge to keep the water moving down stream".

Mahanoy City's West End began pumping the water using their 5 inch line to Mahanoy Plane who then pumped the water to the Rangers who used their deck gun to shoot the water toward the stream.

The first three engines setup and began pumping water around 1:00am and eventually called the Shenandoah's Defender Hose and Saint Clair's West End for additional help.

The crews pumped the water for nearly 6 hours and cleared the scene around 7:00am.