A 45-person first responder crew from Montgomery County returned home Thursday morning after aiding in rescue missions in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
“Helene was a tragedy that took hundreds of lives, but it could have been more without the work of the rescue and search specialists we have,” County Executive Marc Elrich said during a press briefing Thursday.
The personnel were part of Maryland Task Force One, which is hosted by Montgomery County and includes fire and rescue officials from Washington, D.C., as well as Frederick, Prince George’s, Anne Arundel and Howard counties, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services (MCFRS) Chief Corey Smedley. A second team is still working in Georgia and Florida to respond to Hurricane Milton.
MD-TF1 returns @MontgomeryCoMD after 2-week deployment to GA & NC in aftermath of #HurricaneHelene 45-member MD-TF1 was comprised of specialists from @mcfrs @dcfireems @PGFDNews @HCDFRS (video MD-TF Leader @mcfrs Capt Josh Kurland briefs media upon return) pic.twitter.com/JReC00jcyY
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) October 10, 2024
Chase Fabrizio, battalion chief for Maryland Task Force One, said the crew was activated by FEMA to go to Georgia on Sept. 25.
“We were awoken at 4 a.m. the next morning, right after the storm, with a report of a collapsed building in Valdosta, Georgia. We got there, and we found that collapsed building. We utilized our canines to search the area,” Fabrizio said during the press briefing. “Fortunately, we did not find anybody that needed to be rescued in that building. It was vacant at that time, but we also found a couple days’ worth of work for search and rescue efforts.”
Fabrizio said falling trees collapsed many of the buildings in Valdosta, which led to two days of search and rescue for the crew before it was reassigned to Haywood County, North Carolina, which is west of Asheville. The crews conducted search and rescue efforts there for six days.
We welcome home Lt. John Hooker w/ K9 "Leni" and Lt. Rick Caruso from Rescue 3. They were deployed with the Maryland Task Force 1 to help with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. @fema #DCsBravest pic.twitter.com/GTFUyzldqE
— DC Fire and EMS Department (DCFD) (@dcfireems) October 10, 2024
Elrich noted that it took coordination on behalf of the entire county fire department to ensure the county was efficiently staffed with first responders at home while the task force was responding to the hurricane.
“I’d like to thank everybody … I mean, it is amazing work you have to do,” Elrich said. “It took all of the firefighters to make it possible for you guys to get down to where you were and leave Montgomery County still adequately covered in your absence.”
