WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Beating the Heat

Beating the Heat

Burlington, Vermont - August 17, 2009

Forget a hazy shade of Winter, it was an oppressive Summer haze that bore down on Burlington, Monday.

Firefighters had to battle the blazing heat as they battled a blaze at 111 Loomis Street. They were called out just before 4 p.m. for a fire that started in back of the building. It got inside the outer walls and spread up into the attic.

"Our crews are really getting beat up by the heat and the humidity right now," said Battalion Chief Terry Francis. "The firefighters are trained to watch each other for signs of heat exhaustion, we've been rotating our crews frequently, getting them water frequently."

Even with the frequent rotations and exhausted firefighters, the fire was stopped from spreading further into the building.

Temperatures around 90 degrees also made work surprisingly difficult for Lauren Ford, who was manning Bob's Ice Cream Shack down by the waterfront. While some people tried to beat the heat with cool eats, for many it was too hot even for ice cream. Ford said business was unusually slow.

"It's so hot in there I"ve been sweating and it's so hot down here that people aren't coming to the water, it's like they're either staying inside with their AC or going straight to the pool or straight to the lake," she said.

Straight to the lake is exactly where Susan Jollie and her grandson, Garrett, went. They were among dozens of people who hopped on board their boats and took a spin around Mallett's Bay.

"Today's a great day to go boating, even though it's hot, you just have to speed up the boat a little bit so you can get some air," said Jollie.

A lack of air in his apartment is what prompted Sean Perreault to call his friends and organize a day of swimming. After cliff jumping at Bristol Falls the friends made their way to North Beach in Burlington.

"It's a really hot day out and we just wanted to cool off," said Carl Benson.

Perreault quickly added that they were drawn to the shores of Lake Champlain by "the girls." When asked how that worked out for them Perreault responded, "The water worked out nice for us."

So even if they were not cool with the ladies on Monday, at least Benson and Perreault managed to keep cool otherwise.

Bianca Slota - WCAX News