September 10, 2005
Phoenix Firefighters Home From Katrina Deployment
From AzCentral.com (link below)
"The team was deployed Aug. 30, driving 36 hours in buses to Louisiana. They started work Sept. 2, waking daily at 5 a.m. and pulling 12-hour shifts in stifling heat and water that stank of sewage. They used freeway on-ramps as boat ramps.
"You went up and down the streets," Deputy Chief Kevin Kalkbrenner said. "The water level was constantly changing. Your boat motor would bump on the roofs of cars."
Before Phoenix's firefighters entered an area, police made sure it was safe. The firefighters worked constantly under armed guard. They cut the roofs of homes to check for survivors inside. Bodies were wrapped up and secured so they didn't float away. People who refused to leave were given military "meals ready to eat" and water.
One day, firefighters looked up to see a woman standing in knee-deep water in her doorway. The woman said the door had been swollen shut for five days. But when she heard the boats, she knew she had to force it open.
On the second floor of another home, firefighters found a paraplegic, and they lowered him to safety with ropes.
When a man approached their boat to say he had finally reached his elderly father on a cellphone, firefighters pulled out maps to find the house where the man lived. When they got to him, he said he had initially planned to stay. When he finally decided to leave, he didn't hear a boat for days. Then he heard the firefighters calling his name.
The man was reunited with his son." Complete story, AzCentral.com
Tags; Hurricane Katrina Firefighters, Hurricane Katrina
