Request for Firefighters for Fire Suppression (NOT THE FEMA REQUEST!)
Can anyone cut-and-paste a weblink or produce anything requesting firefighters for relief of on-duty crews in the New Orleans Metro area? The would be for OPERATIONAL support (i.e. fire suppression, rescue, etc.). This would NOT include the FEMA request for 1000 two-firefighter teams... that is an entirely different request.
I ask for this information because several posts in this forum have eluded to a request from the governor of Louisiana asking SPECIFICALLY for firefighters to perform fire suppression. I have searched every webpage I can find and cannot find any such request.
My friends on the NOFD told me that there are many firefighters from all over the US and Canada who are there helping in an UNOFFICIAL capacity (i.e. self-dispatched). Although they welcome the help, they cannot account for their own members much less the out-of-towners.
At our fire academy, six USAR teams from Southern California have been staged there awaiting deployment orders from FEMA. There is more LA County FD, LA City FD, and Orange County FD fire apparatus and equipment there than Carter has little liver pills and they are just SITTING without an assignment. They have been there since last Thursday and the growing consensus is that if they are unassigned much longer, FEMA will more than likely deactivate them and send them back home to Los Angeles.
For that reason, I find it odd that requests for one fire engine and two firefighters from BFE are being specifically requested in an official capacity from across the nation when fire departments in states that share state lines with Louisiana are not being utilized.
I am a firefighter/paramedic in a large urban fire department in Texas and I am one of hundreds of firefighters here that want to go to New Orleans and help our brother firefighters. If an official request is circulating, please post it here or email me at rjtoc2@yahoo.com so we can get the ball rolling and help our brothers in any way possible.
