Scott Ingersoll · Utica Common Council Records

Talks most about

carbon monoxide 6 national grid 3 fire 4 working fires 2 alarm fires 2 gas stoves 2 call 3 firefighters 3 francis 3 issue 3 increase 3 evaluate 3

Meeting appearances

The bar under each meeting marks when they spoke during it.

Common Council Meeting with Committee of the Whole Meeting February 4th, 2026

February 4, 2026 4m 8s speaking 3% of speaking time 8 remarks

Frequent dialogue partners

Immediate transcript handoffs around Scott Ingersoll: who speaks next, and who Scott Ingersoll answers.

They reply Scott Ingersoll replies

Jack LoMedico 5 handoffs · 1 meeting 3 / 2 balanced Samantha Colosimo-Testa 3 handoffs · 1 meeting 2 / 1 balanced Rocco Giruzzi 1 handoff · 1 meeting 0 / 1 balanced

What they said

Scott Ingersoll 1:50:30

Uh, throughout the country there's been a series of fires at some of these battery storage system, uh, farms. Um, so, uh, my concern would be is if we allowed it too close to residential area, uh, there has to be evacuation distances, and a lot of these fires are taken 3 to 5 days to fully extinguish. You got to leave resources there constantly to monitor the fires. What ends up happening is some of the cells go into thermal runaway. It starts not only the main cell that overheated on fire, but it continues to propagate throughout the system.

Scott Ingersoll 1:51:06

the technology's been around for a little while. They're still perfecting it, and I think we got to take a you know, follow New York State, uh, guidance and take a bit of a wait-and-see approach and, uh, just, uh, be cognizant where we're going to allow these to be, uh, built, right?

Scott Ingersoll 2:09:08

Yes.

Scott Ingersoll 2:15:48

the chief. Um, obviously, uh, we've had a busy January and a very tragic outcome from one of the fires one of the many fires that we responded to in the past month. Um, through the month of January, the fire department responded to 1,361 incidents. We transported over 600 patients to local hospitals. We had 29 reported structure fires in the month of January. 8 of them were working fires or second alarm fires or third alarm fires. Obviously, when we call a second alarm, that brings all on-duty firefighters to the fire scenes. Tragically, two occupants of a house on Jewett Place lost their lives during one of these fires. Earlier that same morning, we had several firefighters injured at 1014 Bleecker Street. They are all recovering, you know, Thankfully, their turnout gear worked the way it needed to and protected them. And, you know, despite some minor setbacks, everyone, with exception of one person, has returned back to work. Again, busy month. Firefighters have really stepped up. It's been a cold month. I can't emphasize enough, everyone, please make sure that you have working smoke detectors in your homes. Make sure that your egress— and that's how you get out in and out of your place that you live— is free and clear of obstructions. And have a plan if a fire happens. Also, please, if you're using space heaters, give them some distance, keep combustible items away from them, and continue to stay safe. And I worked with Francis. Francis called notified me he had an issue at his apartment and trying to help Francis sort that out. He's been having some carbon monoxide issues, so we were able to get National Grid there and address some of that. Carbon monoxide calls are a pretty fairly common call in the City of Utica, especially in the— during the winter months. Encourage everybody to make sure that they have a working carbon monoxide detector as well.

Scott Ingersoll 2:18:18

The carbon monoxide, yes. So most gas stoves, when they're initially fired up, you will get a slight increase in carbon monoxide. It's when that increase— or it keeps on increasing or it stays at a constant level. There could be an issue with the device or the heating device. There could be an issue outside with the exhaust being blocked. So any problems, if your alarm goes off, just give us a call and we'll get National Grid there as well to evaluate the stove. And/or evaluate— what National Grid does is they'll come in, they'll evaluate all the natural gas using items, whether it's the furnace, hot water tanks, gas stoves, and check them out and make sure that they're all working properly.

Scott Ingersoll 2:19:17

It could absolutely increase the levels in the area during that time.

Scott Ingersoll 2:19:29

Yep, yep. And actually, by law, you're required to have a carbon monoxide alarm.

Scott Ingersoll 2:58:32

Uh, we had 29 reported fires and, uh, 8 working fires and couple more than, uh, required.