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Firefighters return the favor of relief
Published Wednesday September 28, 2005
By DYLAN DARLING
When wildfires rage through the West and fire crews are spread thin, the South hasn't hesitated to send help.
Now that the Gulf Coast is recovering from its own natural disaster, firefighters from Klamath and Lake counties are helping to return the favor.
Two incident management teams with members from the two counties have been in the Gulf Coast for two weeks. Both are set to return in the next week.
"We've been helping the New Orleans fire department get back on its feet," said Joy Augustine, safety officer for the Pacific Northwest Team 3. The team's 40 members hail from Oregon and Washington. They are called upon to tackle large fires and other major incidents around the county.
Previous assignments have included recovering debris from the Space Shuttle Columbia, dealing with the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City; and Hurricane Ivan last year in Florida.
In coming back from helping with the recovery from Ivan, Augustine said the team stayed a night in New Orleans a year ago. Then the city was vibrant and their goal was to relax. Now the city is devastated and the goal is relief.
Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, breaching levees around New Orleans and causing severe flooding. In sorting out the disarray left by the storm, incident management teams have set up camps to provide food and shelter for relief workers.
"We were the bed and breakfast," said Mindy Sherrieb, spokeswoman for the Oregon-California Interagency Incident Management Team.
It was the first time many of team's 35 members had been to the deep South, she said.
Set up on pasture land at the Louisiana State University South campus in Baton Rouge, the team's camp is a place for rest and recuperation. The camp includes 25 to 30 tents that sleep nine to 20 people each, a mess tent and 10 boxcars turned into offices.
Sherrieb said she and two other members of her team came back early because of duties back at their home office. The rest of the team will be back later this week.
Augustine's team has been working from the campus of Holy Cross College in New Orleans, helping with the rebuilding of the New Orleans Fire Department and organizing crews from other departments that have come to help. Firefighters from New York City and departments around the state Illinois have come to staff engines and stations while the New Orleans firefighters are getting their own homes and lives in order, Augustine said.
Sherrieb and Augustine's management teams weren't the only ones to travel long distances to help with the effort.
"They had teams from all over," Sherrieb said.
In all, the relief effort has called on the help from three area command teams, five type I teams, such as Augustine's, and eight type II teams, such as Sherrieb's.
With fires neither as big nor as devastating this summer as in recent years, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise has instead rotated more than 6,000 wildland firefighters, nearly a third of its nationwide force, to help with Gulf Coast hurricane relief.
The first time firefighters were deployed for a giant storm was in 1992 for Florida's Hurricane Andrew. Since then, the logistical and communication skills incident command teams have become a hot commodity in crisis regions that have little to do with digging fire lines or rappelling off a helicopter to stop advancing flames.
- The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
On the Net: www.activefires.net.
By DYLAN DARLING
When wildfires rage through the West and fire crews are spread thin, the South hasn't hesitated to send help.
Now that the Gulf Coast is recovering from its own natural disaster, firefighters from Klamath and Lake counties are helping to return the favor.
Two incident management teams with members from the two counties have been in the Gulf Coast for two weeks. Both are set to return in the next week.
"We've been helping the New Orleans fire department get back on its feet," said Joy Augustine, safety officer for the Pacific Northwest Team 3. The team's 40 members hail from Oregon and Washington. They are called upon to tackle large fires and other major incidents around the county.
Previous assignments have included recovering debris from the Space Shuttle Columbia, dealing with the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City; and Hurricane Ivan last year in Florida.
In coming back from helping with the recovery from Ivan, Augustine said the team stayed a night in New Orleans a year ago. Then the city was vibrant and their goal was to relax. Now the city is devastated and the goal is relief.
Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, breaching levees around New Orleans and causing severe flooding. In sorting out the disarray left by the storm, incident management teams have set up camps to provide food and shelter for relief workers.
"We were the bed and breakfast," said Mindy Sherrieb, spokeswoman for the Oregon-California Interagency Incident Management Team.
It was the first time many of team's 35 members had been to the deep South, she said.
Set up on pasture land at the Louisiana State University South campus in Baton Rouge, the team's camp is a place for rest and recuperation. The camp includes 25 to 30 tents that sleep nine to 20 people each, a mess tent and 10 boxcars turned into offices.
Sherrieb said she and two other members of her team came back early because of duties back at their home office. The rest of the team will be back later this week.
Augustine's team has been working from the campus of Holy Cross College in New Orleans, helping with the rebuilding of the New Orleans Fire Department and organizing crews from other departments that have come to help. Firefighters from New York City and departments around the state Illinois have come to staff engines and stations while the New Orleans firefighters are getting their own homes and lives in order, Augustine said.
Sherrieb and Augustine's management teams weren't the only ones to travel long distances to help with the effort.
"They had teams from all over," Sherrieb said.
In all, the relief effort has called on the help from three area command teams, five type I teams, such as Augustine's, and eight type II teams, such as Sherrieb's.
With fires neither as big nor as devastating this summer as in recent years, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise has instead rotated more than 6,000 wildland firefighters, nearly a third of its nationwide force, to help with Gulf Coast hurricane relief.
The first time firefighters were deployed for a giant storm was in 1992 for Florida's Hurricane Andrew. Since then, the logistical and communication skills incident command teams have become a hot commodity in crisis regions that have little to do with digging fire lines or rappelling off a helicopter to stop advancing flames.
- The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
On the Net: www.activefires.net.
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