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Emergency Preparedness In Question After Outage

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Jul 28, 2010 10:13 pm US/Pacific

Emergency Preparedness In Question After Outage

More Local News

Reporting
Steve Large

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Firefighters were delayed in their response to a power outage in South Sacramento on Tuesday, July 27, 2010, because their stations lost power as well.
CBS

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Flaws in South Sacramento police and fire stations delayed crews who tried to respond to a massive power outage Tuesday night, raising questions about the ability of first responders to act in case of a disaster.

Sacramento firefighters in stations 11 and 13 couldn't get their trucks out of the station when a blown transformer knocked out power to more than 15,000 people just after 9:00 p.m. Tuesday.

The power outage led to a small fire at the site of the blown transformer, but crews were delayed in trying to respond to the fire, according to the Sacramento Fire Department.

The fire stations did not have working back-up generators, trapping the fire engines inside when crews found themselves unable to raise the station doors that allow the trucks access to the streets. Firefighters were able to raise the doors manually after a short delay.

City officials told CBS13 on Wednesday they weren't immediately sure how many stations have emergency generators installed.

"It's been slated for generators, we haven't gotten them yet," said Captain Jonathan Burgess.

The Sacramento Police Department lost power too, preventing staff from using the computer system for an hour.

A Sacramento city document originating in 2005 shows fire station generators are a requirement of state law and were deemed "essential to emergency response and disaster recovery" for local fire stations, including those affected by Tuesday's outage.

Approximately $2 million has been allocated for the backup generators since 2005.

City officials told CBS13 on Wednesday they weren't immediately sure how many stations still lack emergency generators.

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