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Y-12 celebrates new fire station, emergency operations center

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Y-12 Site Manager Gene Sievers talks about the plant’s new fire station and emergency operations center during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

A new fire station and emergency operations center at the Y-12 National Security Complex will replace “severely outdated” buildings that were constructed in the 1940s, about eight decades ago. The new buildings will improve working conditions, consolidate operations now conducted in separate places, and provide ample space for large equipment like fire trucks, federal officials and Y-12 leaders said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday.

Workers at the plant, which manufactures components for the nation’s nuclear weapons, among other activities, have been talking about the new facilities for at least 13 years. The start of construction was celebrated with a groundbreaking ceremony in April 2021. The new buildings, reported to have cost $68 million, are part of a “huge transformation,” an effort to modernize the site.

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Emergency workers respond to car crash, fallen trees, flooding

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Oak-Ridge-Flooding-Oak-Ridge-Turnpike-Illinois-Avenue-April-22-2017-Slider

Floodwaters rose close to road level at the intersection of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue after heavy rains fell in Oak Ridge on Saturday afternoon and evening, April 22, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Oak Ridge emergency workers responded to a car crash that injured two people, two fallen trees, and a possible apartment complex evacuation due to flooding during the severe thunderstorms on Saturday.

Heavy rain from the storms led to widespread flooding in Oak Ridge starting late Saturday afternoon. The water appeared to have receded in places a few hours later, or by early Saturday night.

Emergency workers made preparations Saturday evening to possibly evacuate apartments on Royce Circle, where water covered part of the roadway and rose near the first floor of an apartment complex at the northeast end of the circle. The apartments, which are next to Robertsville Road and just east of Willow Brook Elementary School, are in a low-lying area between two creeks that flow down along Jefferson Avenue and intersect with East Fork Poplar Creek, which was swollen with floodwaters on Saturday.

Authorities had made preparations to see how many people lived on the first floor of the Royce Circle apartment complex in case the residents had to be evacuated, Oak Ridge Fire Department Chief Darryl Kerley said. Of the 10 people there, all but one had another place to go, he said. Authorities were watching the water, Kerley said.

“We think it’s receding,” he said Saturday night. [Read more…]

Y-12: Quick-acting officer helps save a life

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The Y-12 Fire Department paramedics and security police officer who gave Freida Williford, front, lifesaving CPR visited her and her husband at the Harriman Care and Rehabilitation Center. From left behind her are, Justin Blackstock, Joe Perian, Keith Williford, Rick Dettmering, Brad Holt, and Loyd Williams. (Photo by Y-12)

The Y-12 Fire Department paramedics and security police officer who gave Freida Williford, front, lifesaving CPR visited her and her husband at the Harriman Care and Rehabilitation Center. From left behind her are Justin Blackstock, Joe Perian, Keith Williford, Rick Dettmering, Brad Holt, and Loyd Williams. (Photo by Y-12)

 

By Y-12 National Security Complex

Radiation control technician Freida Williford and two coworkers had been working in the Y-12 Protected Area and were headed to lunch one day in a van. She remembers feeling strange—dizzy, with a severe headache.

No, she didn’t need to go to medical, she told her coworker; it would pass. That was the last memory she had before waking up in the hospital.

As she later learned, the time during her memory gap included lifesaving steps taken by Y‑12 employees and medical professionals that gave Williford a second chance at life.

What happened in between—lifesaving steps taken by Y‑12 employees and medical professionals—gave Williford a second chance at life. [Read more…]

Y-12 firefighter puts out car fire at Weigel’s gas station

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Eric Mocasri of the Oak Ridge Fire Department checks a Volkswagen Beetle that caught fire at a gas pump at Weigel's gas station and convenience store on South Illinois Avenue on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Eric Mocsari of the Oak Ridge Fire Department checks a Volkswagen Beetle that caught fire at a gas pump at Weigel’s gas station and convenience store on South Illinois Avenue on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

A firefighter on his way to work at the Y-12 National Security Complex extinguished a fire in a Volkswagen Beetle at Weigel’s gas station Saturday evening.

Jim Wilson of the Y-12 Fire Department used a fire extinguisher to put out the fire in the back of the VW car, which was at a gas pump, just after 5 p.m. Saturday. The flames burned through a grill on the back of the car above the engine, and they were visible from South Illinois Avenue.

It wasn’t clear what caused the fire. [Read more…]

Couple escape with their dog from house fire

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Wayside Road Fire June 15 2016 1

The Oak Ridge Fire Department puts out a house fire at 106 Wayside Road on Wednesday, June 15, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 10 a.m. June 16.

An Oak Ridge man and woman and their dog escaped from a fire that heavily damaged a home on Wayside Road on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.

The fire was reported at about 5:32 p.m. Wednesday.

The couple and their dog were reported to be out of the house and in a neighbor’s yard when firefighters arrived. No injuries were reported.

The fire appeared to have started at a propane grill on a back porch, although the cause hasn’t been determined, said Eric Rackard, Oak Ridge Fire Department battalion chief. [Read more…]

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