Local Fire Departments Respond To Joplin Crisis
Oskaloosa Fire Chief Mark Neff talks about their plans for helping during the search and recovery phase in Joplin Missouri (photo D.Hubbard)
Firefighters from Montezuma, New Sharon and Oskaloosa gathered their equipment and said good-bye to their families. Members of the these fire departments pulled out of Oskaloosa heading for Joplin, Missouri after 4 p.m. on Thursday afternoon.
Joplin was struck by an EF-5 tornado at 5:41 p.m. on May 22nd, 2011. With 125 confirmed deaths and 232 persons still missing, exhausted crews have been reaching out to their brothers across the nation.
New Sharon Fire Chief Steve Gerard made a phone call down to Joplin Fire late Tuesday afternoon. After speaking with Battalion Chief Woodward, Gerard offered the services of New Sharon Fire and Rescue. He informed the Chief of the background of what they had done in the past when they “helped to work Katrina, Parkersburg, Carroll and the other locations we had been into, and gave him our credentials on what our people have.”
Woodward called Gerard back yesterday at 4 p.m. and asked how soon they could be there. “Give me 24 hours to put the people together,” Gerard told the Joplin Fire Chief.
New Sharon Fire Chief Steve Gerard talks about how the opportunity to help Jophin Missouri came about. (photo D.Hubbard)
They were informed they would be working in body recovery. Then New Sharon’s Chief Gerard contacted Montezuma and Oskaloosa. “So then 24 hours, here we go we’re on the road.”
Chief Neff of Oskaloosa explained the difference between search and rescue search and recovery which is what they will be doing. “The big difference between rescue and recovery, rescue you have a viable victim, recovery, we’re looking at 3 days now. Eventually every rescue effort does turn to recovery in a mass causality incident like they had down there. The recovery side of it becomes much more in depth. We don’t want to go search a house and not find anything and then 2 days later something comes up that we missed. Recovery is much more detailed. We want to make sure that we’re looking at every possible place there could be a victim,” said Neff.
Funds were provided by a supper that the New Sharon Fire has each September. The funds raised at that supper are used for just these types of situations. “It seems like just about every year we have been headed out somewhere,” Gerard said of the departments activities.
Oskaloosa Fire Chief Mark Neff said they will be going down to help relieve other search and recovery crews. Along with New Sharon’s equipment trailer, a skid steer, and chain saws that Oskaloosa was taking down, the group should be able to help clear area’s of the city, and let other local crews get some much needed rest.
The group plans on being there through Tuesday night, with their planned arrival in Joplin being midnight tonight. The groups first planned outing into the debris field is scheduled for 6 a.m. working 12 hour shifts.
“I pretty much know what the experience is gonna be,” Neff said of their upcoming time in Joplin. “The biggest reason I want to (go help), at some point, we’re gonna have something happen in our area. We’re gonna go down there and help them, and in turn, someday if we have trouble, I have absolutely no doubt they will be up here,” Neff said of his thoughts and reasons for wanting to help. “We’re going to go down there and relieve some of those folks so they can start picking up some of their own lives.”
This is the caravan of vehicles ready to pull away from Oskaloosa on Thursday afternoon to arrive in Joplin Missouri by midnight (photo D.Hubbard)
Chris Widmer, Montezuma Fire Chief, was one of the nine local firefighters and one of the three Monte was sending along. Chief Gerard approached them about the possibility of going, and if there would be any guys that wanted to go. So in a loaned Suburban from Vannoy Chevrolet in Montezuma, Joel Kercheval and Cory Simpson joined their Chief on the trip South to help those in need. They will also be joining in the search and recovery of victims in Joplin, Missouri.
Besides knowing that they went to help families in need of closure on the location of loved ones or firefighters and other emergency workers that have been pushed to the breaking point by fatigue, and the satisfaction that comes from knowing they helped, local firefighters will bring back skills they have learned from the experience, but also other departments that are on site.
The firefighters and their families are also sacrificing a holiday weekend to make this possible, and they are doing it without receiving a dime for themselves. So the next time there is a fireman’s breakfast, you might consider dropping something extra into that boot or what ever else they use to collect the money. It might be your families home they are coming to next.
