Montgomery County Fire and Rescue is sending crews to Florida to aid those impacted by Hurricane Dorian. Officials said over 85 people will be sent in a caravan to provide assistance.
Scott Goldstein, the Fire Chief of Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, said at about 2 p.m. Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency asked Maryland Task Force One to send 85 personnel south toward Hurricane Dorian's impact area.
These crews will prepare and to support the local residents for the potential damage and impact of the hurricane.
"A lot of training has gone into preparedness," Goldstein said. "A lot of training for the folks in their specialty as well as in multiple disciplines, but the ability to help another person is what drives us to be first responders. And the ability as fire chief, as a community leader to send my specialists, our specialists, from Montgomery County south somewhere to help another community, it's a great honor."
The 85 folks include six canines, two structural engineers and two doctors. The crews are also taking about 20 vehicles, 80,000 to 100,000 pounds of equipment, three tractor trailers and six boats.
The crews plan to be gone for 10 to 14 days.
"These folks will be able to operate self sufficient for three days, have the equipment to sustain operations for 10 days, to work in a collapsed structure environment including heavy concrete to lightweight wood structures as well as treat anybody we find," Goldstein said. "The people that are impacted by a hurricane and those injuries are very specific at times, so that's why we'll have those doctors come with us."
The crews headed south are nothing short of prepared. Goldstein said some of the people headed to Florida have been part of this process for 25 or 30 years.
"We know to expect a lot of various things," Goldstein said. "A Category 4 storm is going to impact a lot and do significant damage."
Many of his crew-members went to Waveland, Mississippi to provide aid for those impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Some also went to Oklahoma City, and even provided aid during 9/11 and at The Pentagon. They've been to the Carolina's and the Gulf.
"It's something that we use as our baseline to support our training and our baseline to support the risk benefit analysis that our folks are going to engage with," Goldstein said.
Goldstein said his crews expect to participate in wide area searches, including helping local responders validate that there's nobody left in a structure -- injured or stranded. He also said there may be collapsed structure extrications they'll participate in.
"We're first responders so we're pretty flexible," he said.
But above all, Goldstein said as a first responder, he feels honored to be able to provide aid during the hurricane.
"It's an honor for us to be able to go to another community and help in their time of need," Goldstein said.
