New Sharon Fire Enters Second Day Rested And Ready

Members of the New Sharon Fire Department work on cutting wallboard at a house in Independence, Louisiana.

Independence, Louisiana- The crew from New Sharon Fire entered Saturday rested and sore after a long first day of recovery efforts.

The three members of the New Sharon crew include Josh Crouse, Dustin Briggs, and Fire Chief Steve Gerard.

Those three left Mahaska County on Thursday evening after having worked all day. Driving in shifts, they arrived to their destination of Independence, Louisiana at 8:30 Friday morning.

With only but a short nap on the trip down, the crew was tasked with their first assignment, which took 7 hours to complete.

A thankful community made all of the volunteers a lasagna dinner that was served at the fire station in Independence. New Sharon is joined on the ground with other volunteers, including some friends from the Biloxi Fire Department.

Biloxi is here helping to return a favor this department gave them after Hurricane Katrina.

The crew started off with helping to set up an aid station for the community at the old fire station.

The crew then move to an outlying area where a state fire inspector and his family has had their home destroyed by water.

The crew loaded up debris and hauled it to a nearby dumpster that was deposited there for residents to use.

The family suffered water damage to not only their home, but both of their vehicles were destroyed, and their camper.

All of this happened while Brenda Mashon watched the waters rise into their home as her husband was out saving others from flood waters.

After noon, the team moved to another home. 81 year old Geraldine Skinner has lived at that location her entire life and never witnessed anything like the flood that heavily damaged her home.

The crews work to remove wet sheet rock, wood, and furniture that was soaked during the flooding. Insulation is pulled from the walls to allow the home to dry more quickly, and minimize the mold impact to the structure.