Firefighter Russ Weitzel of the Unionville Volunteer Fire Company works to maintain one of several chain saws used around the clock last weekend to cut trees from wires and roadways during Winter Storm Avery.

Three area fire chiefs agree that Winter Storm Avery was the busiest emergency situation they’ve encountered.

Steve Bicehouse, the county’s director of emergency services, said the five fire companies with the highest call volume from last Thursday through Sunday were Unionville with 79, Herman with 57, Butler Township Station 3 in Meridian with 55, Penn Township with 53 and Connoquenessing with 40.

Chief Nathan Wulff said Unionville Volunteer Fire Department got their first storm-related call at about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, when crews responded to a vehicle accident in the freezing rain.

Two more accidents followed, and then the trees began to fall.

Lou Zimmerman, chief at the Connoquenessing Volunteer Fire Department, said the department’s initial call came at 7 p.m. Thursday for a tree down on Whitestown Road.

“You’re out there working at four o’clock in the morning, and there are trees just crashing down around you,” Zimmerman said.

Dave Bestwick, chief of Butler Township Volunteer Fire District Station 3 in Meridian, said his department’s work began Thursday evening.

“It was Saturday afternoon before we got caught up,” he said.

Read more about the departments’ experiences in Friday’s Butler Eagle.