NORTH ANDOVER — The Fire Department can't keep up with the demand for calls for help from homeowners with flooded basements.
Fire Lt. Scott Nussbaum said that during the 24-hour period ending at midnight last night, 46 calls came in for mostly water-related problems.
The main reason, he said, is that a tree fell on utility wires on Massachusetts Avenue yesterday, knocking out power to the downtown area.
People lost power for about four hours and called the Fire Department because there was no power for their pumps. But with only two, large pumps, it's taking firefighters a long time to get from one home to the next. There is now a waiting list of homeowners who have called for help.
"We've been out straight everywhere," Nussbaum said. "It's a long wait."
One problem with the rising water in basements is that when the water hits a gas-fired boiler, for example, it causes it to misfire and sets off smoke alarms.
"Almost every house we go to, we shut the boiler off," Nussbaum said. "There's nowhere for the water to go."
Making matters worse is that people are ignoring road closure barricades and going through huge puddles and getting stuck.
The area around Brooks School off Great Pond Road is particularly hard-hit, with the playing fields around the school inundated with water and backing up into peoples' yards, he said.
Nussbaum said that the pumps used by the North Andover Fire Department are good at emptying basements with several feet of water in them, but can only get the water down to about 4 or 6 inches.
The rest is up to the homeowner to remove.
He said most people now have pumps, especially since there have been so many severe floods and storms in recent years.
"Almost everyone should have a pump," he said.
In Andover, water on the Shawsheen River was backing up into basements along Route 28.
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