A task force with the Phoenix Fire Department’s Special Operations Section has been called to help with rescue and recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene.
Captain Shaun DuBois with the Phoenix Fire Department said because of the situation’s unpredictable nature, it’s hard to pinpoint how long the team will be deployed to work under FEMA’s Incident Support Team.
“We're aware of power grid outages, we're aware of massive flooding, said DuBois. “It's going to be something that's going to be fluid, dynamic as we're en route. We don't know, but we are prepared.”
Thanks to staffing preparations, he said, fire services in Phoenix won’t be impacted.
The 45-member team consists largely of Phoenix firefighters, “but we also bring structural engineers, we also bring doctors. We have dogs that can do live find as well as human remains.”
DuBois said the team will bring all kinds of equipment in the more than a dozen vehicles they’ll take there, but the main focus will be helping locate any remaining victims.
“There’s a lot of additional training that goes into this,” he said. “They are excited to respond. It's kind of in our nature. It's why we got hired on the fire department, we kind of run towards that danger to assist in any way that we can.”
