Local emergency personnel aid in hurricane rescue efforts
Several members of the Fayette County Hazardous Materials Response Team 900 joined other emergency personnel in the eastern part of the state to help assist with rescues and other emergency situations as Hurricane Irene moved up the East Coast.
Sue Griffith, Fayette County 911 public relations director, said that the HAZMAT team was contacted early Saturday by the state EMA and asked to assist.
She said Team 900 members deployed with equipment specific for water rescue and decontamination operations and set up shop Saturday afternoon at the Montgomery County Fire Academy outside of Philadelphia.
Guy Napolillo, assistant director of the county Emergency Management Agency and the county’s 911 coordinator, said that the weather moved into the area around 3 a.m. Sunday and that team members were immediately called into action.
“We were busier than we had expected,” Napolillo said. “We had several active rescues, including the rescue of a woman clinging to a tree, a person stuck on a bridge abutment and and several reports of vehicles stuck in floodwater.”
He said that he worked primarily with Team 900s decontamination team during the hurricane, cleaning emergency responders returning from flooded areas.
Griffith said that the water rescue team assisted a team from Beaver County, and noted that local team members assisted in the rescue of a crew of firefighters that were thrown from their rescue boat.
Napolillo said Fayette County Team 900 members returned home late Sunday.
The hazardous materials team was not the only contingency of local emergency personnel working to help aid rescue efforts along the East Coast.
Napolillo said several area emergency medical personnel were dispatched to assist in New Jersey.
Additionally, Michael Adametz of Belle Vernon, who is the southwestern Pennsylvania director of emergency services for the American Red Cross, was also dispatched to Philadelphia, where he will work to help coordinate hurricane relief efforts following Irene’s destructive path.