Saint John is still leading the way in the Maritimes for having the most snow this winter.
Firefighters in the Kennebacasis Valley say that, when they arrived at a house fire Wednesday night, their battle was more with the snow than then flames.
“With the depth of the snow, it was a challenge to move around the house and actually move our hoses around,” says Platoon Chief Mike Boyle.
He says the amount of snow dumped in the region is making it difficult for firefighters to get to homes.
“When we’re wearing our full protective gear…it makes it very challenging to move through that snow,” he adds. “The hoses are heavy obviously when they’re full of water, so trying to move those and get around to the back of the house, especially where we just had snow fall yesterday…it makes the work that much tougher to do.”
The average amount of snow for Saint John for the winter is around 174 centimetres, but according to Environment Canada, since November, the city has received more than 350 centimetres.
CTV Meteorologist Cindy Day says, officially, there was 199 cm’s of snow on the ground in Saint John on Thursday, more than twice the amount from the previous record, set in 1963.
Maritime drivers are also battling deep snow. Police are warning drivers to use extra caution when pulling into roads near high snowbanks because it may be difficult to see oncoming traffic.
Melissa Winchester manages an autobody shop and she says they’ve been flooded with calls to fix cars damaged from the snow.
“Some of them are caused by plow trucks,” she says. “Some of them…because there’s so much snow you can’t even see where the vehicles are.”
In Moncton, snow clearing continues and the city’s dumping site is becoming somewhat of an attraction.
Firefighters continue to encourage people to shovel out fire hydrants near their homes to make access easier.
