In January 2012 an arctic blast hit the Pacific Northwest, bringing freezing rain and record snowfalls followed by ice. Over 200,000 people lost power, everyone tried to stay off the roads and even Sea-Tac Airport shut down for a brief period.
Around the South Sound it was a good time to stay indoors and crank up the heat, if you were fortunate enough to still have power. For most of us it was inconvenient but not life-threatening, a chance to gather with neighbors for a candlelit game of cards or board games by the fire. But at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, the situation was more serious.
On its main campus, the hospital had enough fuel stored for its backup generators. However, not all of its facilities are in the same place. “Where we get into trouble is our outpatient surgery buildings and rehab building clinics. They have smaller generators and don’t have enough fuel to last for six days,” says Larry Wright, an electrician at the hospital. “Without power, we would have to call for support to evacuate the patients from the rehab clinic to the main hospital.”
Additionally, all of the outlying clinics would lose the medications that are stored in their pharmaceutical refrigerators. “The next day, we would have been turning away patients,” says Wright.
Fortunately, it never came to that as Acme Fuel kept Providence supplied with diesel throughout the storm. “We were bringing loads of fuel to Providence St. Peter Hospital,” says Acme Vice President and General Manager Christophe Allen. Local Fred Meyer, Safeway and Lowe’s stores were also running off generators and Acme kept them going as well, along with regular private and commercial clients and plenty of customers they had never seen before.
“We figured we couldn’t let these people be stranded. We had to take care of them,” says Allen. His team worked fifteen hour days, came in on a Saturday and stayed open for anyone who needed them. “It was incredibly hectic but we did it,” he says. “I even hand delivered fuel to some of our auto refill customers that we couldn’t reach by truck. I went out there with ten gallons to dump in their tank to at least keep them going for a little while.”
At the office itself, lines of people waited to fill their smaller propane canisters to keep their barbecues and generators going. There were lines of cars at their Fast Fuel gas stations buying non-ethanol gas for home generators. Acme picked up many new customers during that storm, ones who had been unable to reach their regular fuel provider or told that they couldn’t be helped. “It was a good bump of business but I don’t want that to happen again,” says Allen, shaking his head.
Many of those emergency clients converted into regular customers, he says. “Usually when people give us a chance and we establish a relationship, they stick with us because they see that we’re fair in our pricing and we treat them well and take care of them. I just talked to a guy today who’s been with us since 1965. We have a ton of long-time customers.”
Beyond exceptional customer service, Acme supports the community in other ways. “We have a special fund here in the office. We call it Rick’s Fund for a driver who passed away in a house fire several years ago,” says Allen. “If there’s a customer who can’t afford to pay their bill and for whatever reason they can’t or won’t go to Community Action Council or Salvation Army, we’ll buy their fuel out of that account.”
At the company’s annual Christmas party, the staff brings food for the Thurston County Food Bank and toys for Toys for Tots. “On Monday after the party, I load up my vehicle with all the stuff and bring it to Salvation Army,” he says. “Every year they’re so happy.” Acme also supports other local organizations including the Providence St. Peter Foundation, South Puget Sound Community College, Community Youth Services, Olympia Downtown Association, and Olympia High School sports.
More recently, our community experienced another storm and again, Providence St. Peter Hospital faced the challenge of losing power. “We had a 12-hour power outage from a wind storm on a Sunday,” says Wright. “By 6:00 p.m. on Sunday night, Puget Sound Energy couldn’t tell us when the power would come back on. We didn’t have enough fuel to make it through the night.”
So he picked up the phone and called Acme. “Within 35 minutes, they were there,” he says. “I’ve always gotten that kind of support from them, whether it’s during ice storms or wind storms. I’ve been here for 16 years and dealing with Acme Fuel the whole time. You don’t leave a company that gives you that kind of support.”
For more information about Acme Fuel/Fast Fuel, visit www.acmefuel.com or call 360-943-1133.
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