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by SETH SOLOMONOW
One week after Hurricane Katrina ripped into the Gulf Coast and left a trail of devastation, some 350 New York City firefighters boarded pre-dawn charter flights to New Orleans.
Among those on the Labor Day flight were more than two dozen Staten Islanders or firefighters from Island companies, inspired to volunteer to help douse the sporadic fires flaring up in the besieged city.
Given New Orleans' housing stock of aged, wooden homes built close together, a small fire can grow into a block-long conflagration if not checked. The fires that cannot be reached by truck are doused by the ubiquitous helicopters.
The firefighters of New Orleans -- many of them homeless, beleaguered and weary -- welcomed the support, and stood alongside their New York brethren on Sunday, the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, which killed 343 New York City firefighters.
That emotional ceremony was amplified by its being held at the site of a new national tragedy.
It's a war zone in New Orleans, said West Brighton resident Brian McLoughlin, a firefighter with Ladder Co. 3 near Manhattan's Union Square, who spoke with the Advance by cell phone.
McLoughlin is one of 1,500 firefighters and military personnel from across the country billeted at Holy Cross College in Algiers, a New Orleans neighborhood across the Mississippi River from downtown and on higher ground, saving it from the flooding that inundated low-lying areas.
As the septic waters recede, the full extent of the damage is revealed. The Army Corps of Engineers estimates the flooding may have irreparably damaged up to 160,000 homes.
Katrina's devastation is just tremendous, said Capt. Steven Berube of Brooklyn's Division 15, who is helping coordinate the effort and who assisted in the search and rescue four years ago at Ground Zero.
Firefighters are used to dealing with daily small-scale tragedies, Capt. Berube said. When one house is destroyed, we can sympathize. Then, to come down here and see thousands and thousands and thousands in that same situation is a tremendous difference.
Though the incidence of fires has decreased in the last week, officials fear worse might still come. As power is restored to more of the city, sparks from shorted-out wires might start a new wave of fires.
Another huge task has been setting the Incident Management Team to handle food, supplies and ancillary needs for emergency workers. In what little downtime remains, New York firefighters have helped their Southern counterparts remove the debris smothering their own devastated homes.
Down here, there's nothing left, said Firefighter Jim Andruzzi, a Grasmere resident and 10-year veteran of Ladder Co. 3. It's an experience I probably won't forget the rest of my life.
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