CRAWFORD COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — With freezing rain in the early hours of Monday, Jan. 22, it was a nightmare for drivers on Highway 59. Temperatures were below freezing, ice covered the pavement, and numerous cars were stranded on the side of the road for hours.
"There were a few people up on 59 Highway that chose to stay with their car. They did have blankets with them and stuff ... The fire department would go back and check on him to make sure they were okay," Veronica Jones, director of Crawford County emergency management, said.
Butterfield District 5 is a volunteer fire department in Crawford County.
"None of these guys are on a paid fire department, so they're out there volunteering," Jones said. "And, you know, they're putting their life on the line, because it was so treacherous out there, to try to make sure everybody was safe."
To keep everyone safe, the fire department opened up as a warming center for those stranded in the cold for hours.
"We started getting reports of accidents on 59 Highway between the station here and Highway 220 west," Captain Tim Jones with the fire department said. "And so in response to that, we ended up coming on to around 14 vehicles that had gone off into the ditch. It was extremely slick, even with chains on trucks, we were having difficulty getting traction and moving up and down the highway."
One person who was stranded and waiting at the fire station for his car to get pulled out of the ditch told 5NEWS he had been at the station since 12:40 a.m. and said, "Without these guys, I would have been stranded in a cold car with no food for hours."
From 1:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. on Monday, the department received 22 calls. From those calls, 4 people were injured and the icy roads led to slower-than-normal response times.
"Due to the fact that, you know, it's hazardous conditions, even though we have chains on our vehicles that are responding, we still have to drive slowly and make sure that we get there safely as well," Jones said. "It probably took around 20 to 30 minutes for us to get on the scene. from the time that we started getting notifications that there were vehicles that were stranded in the ditch on 59."
Captain Tim Jones says Monday's conditions are among the worst he's seen during his 15 years with District 5.
"One of the reasons why I got involved with the fire department is to help the community ... It's not just helping people that are in this area there. I'm also helping my neighbors and relatives and friends that live in this area," he said.
Crawford County emergency services reported 8 people stayed at the station overnight into the morning and returned people to their cars safely. Arkansas State Police re-opened Highway 59 around 12:45 p.m. on Monday.
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