Neither Rain Nor Fire Keep SnoPac Dispatchers From Their Duties

It’s been an interesting time for the folks who work at the SnoPac-911 center on Everett Mall Way in south Everett. For quite some time they have had a roofing project going on over their heads. Last night after heavy rains a good sized leak made it into the building.

This morning, the roofing crew had an issue that caused some material on the roof to catch fire. Apparently the fire was right next to an air intake so smoke began filling the floor where SnoPac is located. Dispatchers toned out the Everett Fire Department to their own building which they calmly described over the air as filling with smoke.

Roofers got the fire out by the time Everett Fire units arrived. Crews went onto the roof to check and a fire inspector was called in to determine the cause of the fire. In the meantime heavy duty fans were brought in to clear the smoke from the building.

The entire time dispatch operations continued without a hiccup. Here is the official work from Kurt Mills at SnoPac…

IMPACTED: SNOPAC Primary Facility

TIME: Approximately 11:20

ESTIMATED DOWNTIME: No downtime.

DESCRIPTION: The City of Everett has been overseeing a resurfacing of the roof at SNOPAC & Everett Police Department South Precinct. This morning at 1120 staff noticed a smoke odor and called Everett Fire to investigate. Shortly thereafter we learned the roofers had briefly ignited roofing material while working next to the HVAC and although they quickly extinguished the fire enough smoke was drawn into the air handler to activate the fire alarm. In preparation for a potential evacuation of SNOPAC a forward team of dispatch staff was sent to SNOCOM and the center moved to Level 2 Operations. Recognizing the fire threat was eliminated staff began ventilation efforts which will continue for the next several hours. The forward team has since returned to SNOPAC, Everett Fire has departed and we are returning to normal operations. Everett Facilities is now on scene and taking steps to ensure this cannot occur again.

BACKGROUND: Both SNOPAC, SNOCOM and County DEM act as backup locations should either PSAP need to be evacuated. PSAP Abandonment protocols in place at both SNOPAC & SNOCOM allow the immediate relocation of staff in an emergency, either center can be fully evacuated. DEM is used to augment operations given SNOPAC’s larger size.

Editor’s Note: It’s pretty impressive to hear how calm the dispatch staff was given all that was going on. Here’s a short 02:15 audio clip to show how great they were at handling the situation…