COLORADO SPRINGS — Dozens of Colorado firefighters are back home after weeks away helping in the aftermath of the two hurricanes that devastated the southeast area of the country.
“For Colorado Task Force One, it's 23 fire departments that make up the entire task force from around the state,” said Lieutenant Aaron McConnellogue, with Colorado Springs Fire Department.
Colorado Springs Fire and multiple other fire departments in Southern Colorado shared firefighters to help with search and rescue.
They are emergency responders who have trained and qualified to be part of what is called Colorado Task Force 1.
They are a national resource on-call month to month and ready to offer help through FEMA when other regions of the country are overwhelmed by disaster.
“it's quite an honor to be a part of the team, and especially to travel around the country and be able to to help others out in these other communities. And most of those people don't know that we're local firefighters from wherever we came from,” said McConnellogue
With the most recent mission Colorado Task Force 1 dealt with the aftermath of hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Search and rescue missions evolved into humanitarian efforts.
“Trying to assist people, food, water, medications, find out what their needs are, get accountability, so we know that they're safe and they're okay, and we can provide that information back to the local authorities there,” said McConnellogue.
Missions like this also offer real experience that helps with local emergency preparedness back home.
“We're mission driven, right?” said Pikes Peak Office of Emergency Management, Executive Director, Andrew Notbohm, “And it's about resources, getting resources, tracking those resources. It's about operational coordination. It's about information management and helping with our community recover.”
Lessons learned in the aftermath of hurricanes increase preparedness in Colorado for other types of disasters.
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