Water Rescue Team With Members From South San Francisco Fire Heads Home

MENLO PARK, CA — A group of Bay Area rescue workers is on their way home after being deployed more than a week ago to hurricane-ravaged Texas. The team consists of consists of firefighters from central San Mateo County, Palo Alto, San Mateo, San Jose, South San Francisco and the Menlo Park Fire Protection District. It was sponsored by the latter district, which is headed up by Chief Harold Schapelhouman.

The members of California Task Force 3 are expected home this week after helping clean up some of the mess Hurricane Harvey left behind.

Chief Schapelhouman sent out the following status update on the crew's work Monday evening:

The Firefighters, representing the Menlo Park Fire District, Palo Alto, Central San Mateo County, San Mateo, San Jose and South San Francisco Fire Departments were deployed over a week ago and drove straight through to San Antonio Texas in 39 hours with a command vehicle, four trucks towing 6 boats in two trailers.

They were assigned to water based search and rescue operations in the rural areas around the City of Wharton, Texas and to then to the City itself. The Task Force was one of the only Federal Teams to use Drones for search operations.

This is the first time all 28 National Urban Search and Rescue FEMA Teams have been deployed since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It is also the first time the new Water Rescue Teams were all used since their addition to the Task Force Equipment and Operational Profile since their creation after Hurricane Katrina.

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FEMA Rescue Teams were pre-positioned in Texas in advance of Hurricane Harvey, more were deployed when it hit as a Category 4 Hurricane and others, like California Task Force 3, were deployed once the full extent if the damage and projected rain fall were better known and understood.

Fire Chief Schapelhouman said "one of our team members more than likely will be moving forward with an overhead element in preparation for Hurricane Irma. We will keep the Water Rescue Team together and they should be home in a few days. We will roster another Team in case we need to deploy to Hurricane Irma once they return. I know the Water Rescue Equipment is in pretty good shape with the exception of one of the inflatable river boats (IRB) that got tangled up in a barbed wire fence, but we have other boats that can replace it."

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IMAGE: Fifteen members of the California Water Rescue Team known as Task Force 3 based out of Menlo Park pose for one last group photo before leaving Katy Texas Sunday at noon and heading back to the Bay Area. CREDIT: Menlo Park Fire Protection District