Cold snap affects people across the city
Posted Mar 1, 2011 9:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Cold weather usually keeps police busy clearing up car crashes.
Between 6 am and 3:30 pm Tuesday, police report over 200 collisions, 31 of them involving minor injuries.
City crews work around the clock to clear roads, while EMS help people who have slipped on the ice or have pulled muscles shovelling snow.
But this lengthy burst of cold is causing even more problems across the city.
When it gets this cold fire fighters respond to more house fires, floods and cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Brian McAsey with the Fire Department tells 660News many people over-crowd power outlets, and crank up the heat without thinking twice.
“People tend to use things like space heaters and they tend to use extension cords to make sure their cars are plugged in. A lot of times this sort of use of electricity, because it’s going up….it’s under a lot more adverse conditions, and we see a lot more fires as a result of that,” he says.
McAsey adds faulty furnaces can give off CO2, while freezing water in pipes can cause them to burst.
While fire crews deal with the household hazards, Calgary’s homeless are scrambling to get out of the cold.
Louise Gallagher with the drop in centre says they’re helping around 1,100 people per night, some of which are suffering from frostbite.
“A lot of our clients who work labour, are going out to shovel snow and they’re staying out too long because they’re working, and they want to work,” she says. “Unfortunately we have seen a big increase in frostbite on fingers and toes.”
She says they’re managing to accommodate everyone who walks through the doors. “The building is still crowded, but we are able to manage. Our first and second floor are both for those individuals who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and so they sleep on mats on the floor.”
Gallagher says they’ve re-opened their doors to people they’ve banned from the shelter in the past to make sure everyone stays warm.
