MEDIA ADVISORY
WHAT: PA-Task Force 1 returns from Hurricane Michael deployment
WHO: Members of PA-Task Force 1
Fire Commissioner Adam K. Thiel
WHEN: Friday, Oct. 19, between noon-2 p.m. (tentative – please check our Twitter account @PhillyFireDept for updates)
WHERE: 6601 New State Road, Philadelphia
Nearly 80 members of PA-Task Force 1 will return to Philadelphia on Friday after helping communities in Florida recover from damage suffered during Hurricane Michael. The Task Force is one of 28 federal urban search-and-rescue teams overseen by FEMA. More than half of the returning team works for the Philadelphia Fire Department, which sponsors PA-TF1; the other members are first responders from throughout the region.
Deployment recap:
- About 45 members of PA-TF1 deployed from Philadelphia on Oct. 9 to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. An additional 34 members deployed from Philadelphia the following day.
- The team ended up being stationed in the Florida panhandle, where members worked in Calhoun County and Jackson County to rescue four people, assist 16 people and evacuate 121 people.
- PA-TF1 searched nearly 9,200 structures across the two counties, and made critical repairs at a damaged hospital in Calhoun County that enabled the facility to remain open.
- The team’s convoy of buses, supply trucks and other vehicles left Jackson County on Wednesday morning and is stopping twice overnight on the approximately 1,100-mile journey home.
- Two Task Force members, including a PFD Battalion Chief, remain deployed to serve on FEMA’s Incident Support Team.
- PA-TF1 previously deployed to South Carolina for 19 days in September to respond to flooding caused by Hurricane Florence.
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