Volusia County, FL - Volusia County Fire Rescue has cancelled the open houses scheduled for this weekend due to Biketoberfest and how busy first responders are in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.
"We cancelled it due to an increase in call volume and the fact that we're still in heavy recovery mode from the storm and the devastation from Matthew," said Jeff Smith, VCFR Fire Chief. "There's been injuries that have increased our call volume as well as vehicle accidents and structure fires whenever these houses have been reenergized with electricity from the service provider. So there's a lot of activity. We just need to be ready to respond."
On top of the work load associated with storm damage, it's now Biketoberfest so first responders need to be available to keep our roads safe and to help with the inevitable rise in vehicle accidents.
Smith wanted to urge residents to be careful as they work on cleaning up and repairing damage caused by the storm. First responders have had to deal with many injuries caused by people doing work and not paying close attention or not knowing how to properly use tools.
Also, there's been a rash of structure fires. According to Smith, candle use and the return of electricity to structures that've been without power are 2 of the most common causes of the fires they've been seeing.
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