To the editor:

Heartfelt thanks to members of the Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department, whose quick and thorough response to a Jan. 15 flooding in our Kiwassa Road basement just saved our furnace, a refrigerator and countless items from 6 to 8 inches of fast-rising water. It poured in from the driveway and an accumulated 3 feet of water in the backyard. Two sump pumps in the basement could not handle it.

For close to four hours, the volunteers used hose that pumped from the basement and the backyard. We understand they had to run hose from our property at the bottom of Rockland Avenue some two blocks down Kiwassa Road to find a working street drain for the overflow, because the village drains at the intersection of Kiwassa and Rockland do not work — and haven’t for many years.

Homes between the Rockland Avenue hill and the wooded hill across Kiwassa are in a low point that experiences flooding every spring, though until now not to this extent. Hopefully the village can find a way to fix the problem before a worse condition occurs.

We especially want to thank fire department members Dom Fontana, Ken McLaughlin, Harley Snyder, Casey Taylor, Rick Yorkey, Doug Pack, Chief Brendan Keough and any whose names we missed for their terrific work on this occasion. Our Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department is the best.

Sincerely,

Shirley and Rip Allen

Saranac Lake