The unit temporarily set up at the Big E is 20 or 30 times as powerful as a typical home central air unit Watch video
WEST SPRINGFIELD – Rahm Bhattarai thought he was in for his third consecutive sleepless, sweltering night before a trailer-sized air conditioning unit capable of cooling a jetliner pulled up to the tornado shelter at the Eastern States Exhibition Grounds Wednesday afternoon.
The mercury was as high as 90 outside, which made the inside of the Moses Building, a 4-H dormitory usually used to house teenagers during the annual Big E fair, feel cool by comparison.
“It’s OK for grownups, we can take it,” Bhattarai said.
The shelter had about 90 residents Wednesday, said Jeanne Galloway, director of West Springfield’s Department of Public Health.
But Bhattarai, who used to live on West School Street in West Springfield’s hard-hit Merrick neighborhood, has two children, ages 3 and 7. The kids were already running out of patience with the shelter before it got really hot.
“They are sweaty, and tired and cranky,” he said. “But what we really need is to find a new place to live.”
ABC40 meteorologist Dan Brown predicted highs of 95 on Thursday, which could match the record of 95 degrees set on June 9 in 2008. It was 90 degrees both Tuesday and Wednesday, but neither day was a record. It’ll cool off Friday. The region’s power grid is operating normally, according to ISO New England in Holyoke.
In Springfield, the city opened five cooling centers on Wednesday that will open again on Thursday afternoon due to the extreme heat.
The centers will be open 1 to 8 p.m., at the following locations:
• Mason Square Senior Center, 74 Walnut St.
• Riverview Senior Center, 120 Clyde St./Division Street
• Greenleaf Community Center, 1188 ½ Parker S.
• Pine Point Senior Center, 335 Berkshire Ave.
• Evangelical Covenant Church, 915 Plumtree Road, corner of Bradley.
The state was concerned enough about the heat’s impact on the people living at the Big E that it reached out to Michael F. Molway, president of FM Generator in Canton and West Springfield, with a plan to bring in a mobile generator and then buy a dozen window-sized air conditioners.
Molway said he had a better idea, a diesel-powered mobile unit sitting in his parking lot in Canton. It’s owned by Verizon Wireless, which uses it as a backup cooling system for its computer equipment.
The air conditioning unit with its 6-cylinder Diesel truck engine is 20 to 30 times more powerful than a typical central air unit that would be used in a home.
“It’ll a cool a good-sized building,” Molway said. “They use them to cool jetliners that are parked so they don’t have to run the engines.”
David P. Crichton a service technician for FM Generator based in West Springfield, said the air conditioner is parked outside. His crew used a big flexible hose to route the cold air up through an open window on the second floor, where the bunks are located. Shelter officials will leave a few windows open at the far end of the building to create a flow of air.