snow clearing methods could not be used in many cases due to the height of the drifts and the tight packing of the snow. Friday evening The worst conditions of the blizzard in Buffalo occurred during the late afternoon of Friday, January 28, as winds averaged and gusted to 60 knots [] with wind chills of (NWS pre-2001 wind chill calculation method). That night people stayed in whatever shelter they could find, with 700 people staying in the Donovan State Office Building, 200 in the Rath Building, 300 in the Memorial Auditorium, etc. Authorities estimated 13,000 people were stranded Friday night in downtown Buffalo and that many in the surrounding areas as well — e.g. 1,700 at Bell Aerosystems in Wheatfield, 2,500 at Harrison Radiator Company in Lockport. With many roads becoming impassable, the City of Buffalo police were almost immobile by Friday evening. Through radio and television, citizens were asked to loan snowmobiles and four-wheel drive vehicles to the Buffalo police; police used them to answer calls. Looting broke out and items stolen included radios and firefighters' clothing from fire trucks, as well as more than $1,500 in medical supplies from a stuck ambulance. Cigarettes, liquor, beer, coffee, meat and refrigerators were stolen from abandoned semi-trailer trucks. There was also looting from factories, stores (including two jewelry stores and a furniture/appliance store) and homes. Nearly 100 people were arrested for looting. A fire broke out at Whitney Place and Virginia Street, in the City of Buffalo, on Friday evening. Fire trucks rammed through stalled cars in an attempt to get to the scene and fire hoses were stretched two to three blocks to reach the fire, as that is as far as the fire trucks were able to make it. The National Guard assisted in taking firemen to the scene in four-wheel drive vehicles. Not only did the weather frustrate efforts to reach the scene, but also it hampered the ability to fight the fire. Attempts to disconnect hoses to move them resulted in the water freezing and bursting the hoses. Since the street drains were blocked with snow, runoff water from the fire rose to the running boards on the fire department's pumpers. When this water froze, it required jackhammers to extricate the pumpers. Hoses also had to be removed with jackhammers. Some fire truck pumpers stalled in the snow when wind blew into the engines or they