North Texas firefighters deployed across the state to respond to Beryl
TEXAS — Many North Texas firefighters are headed to the coast to help those directly impacted by Hurricane Beryl's wrath.
The DeSoto Fire Department deployed one of its reserve fire engines with four firefighters. They are part of a strike team with crews from the Arlington, Midlothian, Grand Prairie, Fort Worth and College Station fire departments.
The firefighters left North Texas on Saturday in advance of Beryl making landfall. Originally, they were staged in College Station but have now headed to Tyler, which is expected to deal with severe flooding.
These crews have specialty training to handle swift water rescues and other types of related disaster response.
"So it's a lot of preparation," said DeSoto Fire Chief Bryan Southard. "It's a lot of training. It's a lot of work on the firefighters. Firefighters, in general, just like to help people out. We just want to go help. That's why we do all the training. That's why we get ourselves prepared so that we can respond when something like this happens."
All these departments are part of the Texas Interstate Fire Mutual Aid System and routinely answer the call to support other departments across the state in times of crisis.
DeSoto Fire also deployed one of its firefighters to help staff Cedar Hill's am-bus, which is an enormous ambulance that can carry more than 10 patients at a time. Firefighters from Cedar Hill and Duncanville are also a part of that emergency medical task force.
The crews will typically be deployed for at least 14 days.
Firefighters at home will work extra shifts or overtime to cover for those who are gone. Southard says the team effort is worth it to help our neighbors in other parts of the state.
"And then when we need help, we reach out and they come help us," Chief Southard said. "We always want to be there to help others when they need it because we know they'll return the favor when we need the help."
Firefighters from Flower Mound and Plano were also deployed to assist in the Beryl response.