Officials reminding residents to clear snow from decks

MONCTON The Moncton Fire Department is advising residents to clear snow from their front and back decks to keep them from collapsing.

Don McCabe is the deputy chief in charge of operations and sayssnow building up on older decks have been causing them to collapse.

Decks in older buildings because decks in older buildings maybe didnt meet the standards of newer buildings and they could be weaker and may not be able to take the load, he said.

McCabe also says snow-covered decks inhibit members from responding to calls.

Our fighters wouldnt want to climb over five footsnow banks to try to get to your back door, he said. Its nice to have both entrances cleared.

But keeping the decks cleared has been a challenge.

Alex Morton lives just outside Moncton in Boundary Creek andsays its hard to keep up cleaning his back deck with all the snowstorms.

We had it cleared off the first few storms no problem, he said. We had it all cleaned off and then we got that big dump last weekend and weve managed to clear a path so we can go out and clear off the dryer vent but thats about it.

Mortons deck isnt far from the ground but hesays it could still collapse under the snows weight.

It could probably go but getting the snow off the back deck is a lot tougher than getting it off the driveway, he said.

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Officials reminding residents to clear snow from decks