As August came to an end the entire Chester County area watched and waited for the remnants of Hurricane Ida to hit our area. Local forecasts were for approx. 4 to 6 inches of water and the possibility of major flooding.

To prepare for this the volunteers at East Brandywine staffed the station with 16 members. Not much was happening in the area until shortly after 2 pm when heavy rains started falling. Shortly after 5 pm, the first water rescue call came in and it seemed to be non-stop after that for several hours.

Crews rescued multiple people from their vehicles and even helped multiple families and their animals get to safe ground by allowing them to ride in the fire truck to safety. During the height of the storm, crews were also asked to assist Thorndale Fire Company with a water rescue at GO Carlson and Barley Sheaf and the Downingtown Fire Department with a reported commercial building fire on Lancaster Ave in Downingtown. We also handled a gas leak and several other calls.

In total, the EBFC volunteers handled 20 calls over the course of several hours before the rain finally stopped and floodwaters began to go back down.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those that were affected by the flooding.