5 Firefighters and 1 Fire Commissioner

from the Washington Township Fire Department

Head to Gulf Coast to Help

Update 09-12-2005

Washington Township Firefighters assisting at a accident where a National Guard Hummer collided with a pick up truck on Route 90 east in area of Luling, LA. 2 people were flown to the trauma center.

Update 09-10-2005

Above: WTFD crews make it to New Orleans, a majority of the city is still underwater.

Morning FEMA briefing 09-08-2005

Jefferson Parish Recreation Center - where Dave Horsnall & Ed Haemmerle are staying

Make-shift day room @ Nine Mile Point Fire Department where Harry Lemmerling & Jim Ogle are staying and covering shifts so guys there can go home & see their families.

Update 09-07-2005 Helicopter flies over Baton Rouge, LA where Harry Lemmerling and Jim Ogle are waiting to be deployed into lower LA.

Captain Horsnall and Ed Haemmerle are in Jefferson Parrish doing FEMA CR work & assisting US Marshalls handing out MREs (meals ready to eat) and water.

Left to right: Ed Haemmerle, Captain David Horsnall, Harry Lemmerling, and James Ogle prepare to leave the fire station at 6 a.m. Saturday September 3, 2005

*Update Sunday September 4, 2005 6:30 p.m. Fire Commissioner Rob Hutchison heads to Gulf Coast as part of FEMA--not shown in photo above

After a day of training with FEMA in Atlanta, in line for deployment to Louisiana, left Captain David Horsnall, right Harry Lemmerling Sunday September 4, 2005 @ 6:30 p.m. ET

Firefighters at the afternoon training session: CR leadership & TF leader

Firefighters receive training in Atlanta from FEMA just prior to being shipped out to the Gulf Region on Sunday morning September 4, 2005 @ 9:30 a.m. ET

Published in the Messenger Press, 09/08/2005 http://www.messengerpress.com

Firefighters join disaster relief effort

By: Lauren Burgoon , Staff Writer

Members of the Washington Fire Department left Saturday to join rescue and recovery efforts in the Gulf states.

    WASHINGTON — Six Fire Department staff headed to the Gulf Coast last weekend as part of the nation's emergency response to Hurricane Katrina. The men could be gone for at least a month as the Gulf states attempt to recover from the devastating storm.
    "It takes a strong will to go and commit your time to this," Chief Kevin Brink said. "Most of these guys are married and two have kids. It's a big commitment."
    Firefighters Ed Haemmerle, Capt. David Horsnall, Harry Lemmerling and James Ogle are taking part in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) rescue and recovery operations as part of two-man teams. Each volunteered for the task after FEMA requested 1,000 two-man career firefighter teams to report to the disaster area, Chief Brink said.
    The men left Saturday for Atlanta, where emergency responders nationwide are getting extra training and inoculations to prepare for their work. Chief Brink said Tuesday he heard from Mr. Horsnall that the captain and Mr. Haemmerle were deployed to Louisiana. He had not heard from the other two firefighters or learned of their ultimate destination as of Tuesday.
    Fire Commissioner Rob Hutchinson also left this weekend to assist FEMA's operations. Mr. Hutchinson works full-time for the agency and was also the first sent to Atlanta for training.
    The Fire Department also sent off Jason Palmer. Mr. Palmer joined New Jersey Task Force One Urban Search & Rescue's response.
    Chief Brink said the department will run at minimum staffing until the men return.
    "Right now we're at our maximum commitment" for Hurricane Katrina relief, he said, adding it will not affect the department's ability to respond to local emergencies.
    There is no monetary cost to the department for sending the men — FEMA is covering expenses for the five firefighters participating in the agency's mission.
    The Police Department is also preparing for officers to be deployed south.
    "We have two officers, Sgt. Mike Polaski and Patrolman John Palasits, on standby right now... We're waiting for word of when they'll go down," Chief Martin Masseroni said Tuesday.
    If deployed, Washington police will join the Office of Emergency Management's response, run through the state police. Officers are joining "strike teams," which drive down to the affected areas for law enforcement purposes. Other state strike teams already left for the Gulf states, but Chief Masseroni said he hasn't heard when or if his officers will go down. The teams leave for 16 days — two days to travel to and from the area and 14 days to work.
    Chief Masseroni said 80 percent of the department volunteered for the assignment.
    Washington's firefighters and emergency crews left behind are doing their part for hurricane relief. The Fire Department is a designated drop-off point for a clothing drive organized through the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey and International Association of Firefighters.
    The clothing drive donations can include adult and children's clothes in all sizes. Shoes are also needed. Autumn and summer clothing is welcome and all items must be new or clean and in good condition. Donations can be dropped off between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., seven days a week, at the station on Route 130.
    While FEMA and other emergency agencies only are looking for professionals to deploy to the hurricane-devastated area, those interested in joining the relief efforts can volunteer through the American Red Cross. Information is available at www.redcross.org.
    The Red Cross is also collecting money for victims through its Web site.

`Here to help these poor unfortunate people'

Published on Sunday, September 04, 2005, http://www.nj.com

By MICHAEL RATCLIFFE

Staff Writer

When Washington Township Firefighter Jim Ogle left his home before dawn yesterday, his wife, Heather, kissed him goodbye, told him to be careful and - knowing she would not see her newlywed husband again for over a month - asked him to phone her when he could.

By noon, Ogle and three other members of the Washington Township Fire Department - Capt. Dave Horsnall and firefighters Ed Haemmerle and Harry Lemmerling - were in Atlanta, filling out paperwork and receiving inoculations intended to protect them from hepatitis, tetanus and other potentially deadly diseases.

They were just four of the hundreds of firefighters from throughout the nation who answered an official call from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for volunteers to help with recovery efforts in the Hurricane Katrina-devastated Gulf States.

They will be away from their homes, with only limited phone contact with their families and working in hellish conditions for a minimum of 30 days - with potential for the period of their service to extend to 60 days or more.

"These people have nothing. If we can make a difference in just one life, it's well worth our time," Ogle said in a phone interview yesterday afternoon.

Horsnall readily agreed. "I want to be able to help at least one person. If I can make their quality of life a little better, provide something that makes it just a little bit easier for them, then that's all I need to get out of it," he said.

"We're not here for a pat on the back or an `attaboy.' We're just going to slide under the radar and do the job we need to do. We're here to help these poor unfortunate people," Horsnall said.

A fifth Washington Township firefighter, Jason Palmer, and two West Windsor Emergency Services firefighters, Lt. Mike McMahon and Joe Gribbons, were among the dozens of members of New Jersey's Urban Search & Rescue Task Force One who headed south as part of a different deployment yesterday.

It was late last week that FEMA issued their appeal for 1,000 two-man teams of firefighters willing to be deployed to the South - not for firefighting duty, but to serve as community outreach officials helping distribute aid and information and provide basic first-aid to the thousands left homeless and hungry by the hurricane.

In its appeal, FEMA cautioned that volunteers would need to be "physically capable of performing manual tasks under severe conditions," walk extensively and carry all their equipment with them, and able to work and sleep outside exposed to the elements.

Washington Township Fire Commissioner Robert Hutchinson said the four firefighters have the full support of the board, township Fire Chief Kevin Brink and Mayor David Fried. He said township taxpayers will not be burdened with the cost of the firefighters' salaries, since FEMA has promised to fully reimburse municipalities that allow their career firefighters to help out. FEMA will pay firefighters from volunteer fire departments $23.41 per hour.

After notifying FEMA of their willingness to go, the four received word about noon Friday that they had been accepted and needed to be at Philadelphia International Airport for an 8:30 a.m. flight bound for Atlanta.

That left them with less than 24 hours to prepare. Having to provide their own sleeping bag, tent, medical kit, personal hygiene needs, insect repellent, flashlights and other items, the four spent hundreds of their own dollars at Harry's Army Navy and other area retailers.

"We're prepared for the worst," Ogle said.

The four left the Washington Township firehouse at 6 a.m. yesterday. Once in Atlanta, they received their credentials, a government credit card (for use for fuel and hotel expenses) and a government cell phone. They and hundreds of other firefighters spent last night at a Sheraton Hotel. Today, they will receive training and then be deployed - although they do not yet know where.

For Ogle, making the decision to head south came easy. Last year, he spent several days in Florida helping his grandfather and his neighbors in Pensacola recover from Hurricane Ivan.

The damage caused by Ivan was significant, Ogle said, but from watching recent TV footage it was obvious Katrina had done far worse harm.

"It hit home," he said. "I knew I had to do something to help."

Ogle knows being away from home will be tough - he and his wife have not been apart for more than a few days since their wedding in April - but he said his family and his wife's family have been supportive and have promised to help take care of his wife while he is away.

Lemmerling and Haemmerle are also married and made similar arrangements with their wives and family. Haemmerle also has two young sons - ages 3 and 1.

Horsnall, on the other hand, is single. He said images on the TV of people dying and babies running around naked and starving moved him to act.

The images of looting and other violence taking place in some areas do not concern him. "When people realize you are there to help them, the violence will lessen," he said. "We're going to be roughing it, but we'll do all right. It's going to be a hell of an experience."

Horsnall said Mercer County residents can do their part by donating to the Red Cross and other charities. "Donating just a dollar can mean a lot," he said. "A dollar (in the South) can buy someone a bottle of water. That's a lot more important right now than someone in New Jersey spending a dollar for a cup of coffee."

Published in the Trentonian on 09/04/2005 http://www.trentonian.com

Jersey joins in relief effort

VICTORIA ST. MARTIN , Associated Press & JACK KNARR Trentonian

EWING -- The Garden State has reached out a helping hand to assist in relief efforts in the aftermath of one of the largest natural disasters the nation has ever seen.

Urban search and rescue teams from New Jersey are being sent to the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast to assist in relief efforts, state officials said yesterday.

The state Office of Emergency Management said four rescue teams from New Jersey Task Force One and a team from the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department would be sent to Louisiana.

"Our message to every state affected by this tragedy cannot be any more clear: New Jersey is ready to help with whatever skilled personnel, state-of-the-art rescue equipment or other resources they need," acting Gov. Richard J. Codey said in a prepared statement.

The teams, with 30 personnel, left yesterday afternoon from New Jersey State Police Division Headquarters for a staging area in Baton Rouge, La., where they will receive their assignments.

Codey added the state is ready to send a law enforcement task force of 105 police officers and 55 vehicles. A medical task force of 55 physicians and 43 nurses is also being offered.

The state is awaiting a formal request from the Katrina-affected states before it will send the medical help and extra police. The group is expected to spend nine days in Louisiana, after which it will be rotated out.

Task Force One is a 210-member emergency-response team whose members include police officers, firefighters, and EMS personnel, and physicians and engineers from the private sector.

The 24 personnel from the Task Force One teams being sent to the Gulf Coast include 16 members who specialize in swift-water rescues.

State police Sgt. 1st Class Dan Mitten, the coordinator for the group departing yesterday, described the destruction in Louisiana as "monumental" and "biblical."

"Whatever kind of search and rescue is needed down there, we’re capable of doing it," he said.

Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer said as the richest state in the country, New Jersey should send aid to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

"This is beyond black or white," he said. "This is a humanitarian cause ... these are citizens that have been displaced and we need to offer hope and help right now."

Palmer plans on offering a package of services, from companies and churches, to the victims of the Hurricane.

The Washington Township Fire Department sent five men to the Gulf Coast yesterday, fire officials said. The fire fighters will stay for a month to assist in various rescue missions.

Meanwhile, a concerned caller told The Trentonian that the county is hoarding a stash of supplies the Katrina victims could use--water, canned goods, clothing shovels, and so on--stored at the electric generating station on Duck Island,.

The caller said the goods were collected five years ago by former County Executive Bob Prunetti’s administration in response to the 9/11 tragedy, but ended up not being sent to New York.

Now they remain piled in a storage area just inside the gate of the generating station at the bottom of Lamberton Road, and the caller wondered if anyone in the Brian Hughes administration knows about the stash.

"We do know about it," Hughes said yesterday from California, where he is on vacation. "We have all that stuff stockpiled; in fact, we distributed some of it during the flooding in downtown Trenton. So we use it as it becomes needed.

"We have been asked specifically not to begin sending waters and supplies, and to wait for a request to be made from the governor’s office and from the national office of Homeland Security, because they don’t want to be flooded with things in the region that they can’t stockpile and can’t distribute right now.

"So if and when the call comes for those materials, we are going to be more than happy to send them on their way."

Phillip Miller, executive director of the Mercer County Improvement Authority which owns the sludge plant where the goods are stored, said the stash has shrunk.

"We gave away a lot of the clothes, flashlights, and bottled water to the victims of the past couple of floods that Trenton has seen," Miller said. "There’s practically nothing left."

The state government is but one of many New Jersey entities, public and private, sending relief to the Gulf coast:

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey expected to send two teams, a total of eight people, in response to an aid request from Louisiana. The personnel have special expertise and equipment for restoring emergency communications in disasters. Some in the group were involved in the response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to Port Authority police Superintendent Sam Plumeri Jr.

The New Jersey National Guard has been collecting water donations at 12 armories across the state. Already, 5,000 cases of water have been flown to a Navy air station in New Orleans.

American Red Cross chapters across the state are holding training sessions to increase the number of volunteers available to go down to affected areas. The organization is also encouraging state residents to donate to its National Disaster Relief Fund.

The New Black Panther Party is coordinating the delivery of 40 tons of relief supplies from Atlanta, Ga. Donations can made at the organization’s state headquarters in Trenton, 614 Stuyvesant Ave.

Novo Nordisk, the world’s largest provider of insulin, estimates that the Gulf Coast has one of the highest incidents of diabetes per capita. The company is donating over $1 million, insulin products and delivery devices to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Fox Rothschild LLP, with an office in Princeton, recently donated $10,000 to the American Red Cross to aid the Katrina relief effort.