On Sunday, February 9, the three-person crew of the Mount Washington Observatory were evacuated from the summit to escape a uncontrollable fire. Jeff DeRosa, an intern at the observatory, discovered the conflagration Sunday afternoon at approximately 3 p.m. during a routine visual inspection of the station’s main generator room. Two staff members attempted to contain the fire using a number of fire extinguishers, but the blaze proved too large to quench and they stopped their efforts. “The whole place was glowing,” said DeRosa of the fire. No injures were reported, however the fire destroyed both the main and the back up power generators, completely depriving the observatory of electricity. The observatory is located in the Sherman Adams State Park Building, which lies five hundred feet from the building that houses the generators, and sustained no damage in the fire. It was not the lack of electricity, or a fear of the flames, which provoked the evacuation, but rather the lack of heat. “It’s possible we could have left some people up there, but we may not have been able to get them off for five or six days, by which time they’d be popsicles,” John Hammer, the observatory’s executive director explained in an interview with The Union Leader. “It’s literally the worst weather on Earth, its not just the catch phrase.” The metrological use of Mount Washington began with a scientific expedition in the winter of 1870-1871, the success of which lead to the US Signal Corps establishing the world’s first high-elevation, severe weather station. The station operated continuously until 1892, when the cost of winter operation became too prohibitive and the summit was abandoned. In 1932, a group of private investors and benefactors, convinced of the scientific benefit of a permanent summit-based station, established the Mount Washington Observatory and re-occupied the summit for metrological purposes. Until this past weekend, the staff of the Mount Washington Observatory had maintained a constant human presence on the summit. The effort to reclaim the facility began Monday afternoon when Christin Perruzzi, a meteorologist on the observatory’s staff and a graduate of the Plymouth State College Meteorology program, recorded the first weather observations since the pervious day’s evacuation. By Monday evening heat and electricity were restored to a majority of the buildings via a large diesel generator on temporary loan from Great Glenn Trails in Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire. The loss of power affected not only the operations of the summit observatory, but also some important services in northern New Hampshire. The large generators at the summit powered transmitters for dozens of public and private organizations including The New Hampshire State Police, Office of Emergency Management, the Department of Transportation, and radio stations WPKQ in Conway, N.H. and WHOM in Portland, Maine. The silencing of these transmitters, especially the two radio stations, drastically reduced the effectiveness of the local emergency response network. Ed Brouder, chairman of New Hampshire State Emergency Communications Committee explained to The Union Leader, “The Northern New Hampshire portion of the emergency alert system is now off line. This is the thing that would alert you of natural disasters or weather related emergencies.” With power restored, the staff of the observatory resumed their continuous observation Monday evening, and anticipates no further complications.
Plymouth State University
Thursday, June 26, 2025