25 Jan Snow Hampers Firefighters

The hot arid desert sunshine is often partly to blame for the fast spread of fires in the Middle East. However,  it was a bitterly cold snow blizzard which killed 19 people on America’s East Coast at the weekend, that caused problems for some  firefighters.

Initially when alerted to a fire that broken out in a carpet store in the town of Suitland, Maryland, their vehicles were slowed down by the snow on the ground. But when they got to the shopping mall they found the flames were being fanned by high winds.

“The challenges –  it was very, very windy blizzard-type conditions which, for one, slowed our response,” said Prince George’s County Assistant Fire Chief Alan Doubleday. He said it also had caused the fire to spread rapidly.

Although the fire did spread to other stores in the mall it was eventually extinguished and there were no reported casualties.