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The Fire Department continues to send firefighters to New Orleans to aid with post-hurricane reconstruction and relief efforts.
An additional 135 members were deployed early in the afternoon Sept. 15, while a group of 130 who had been stationed in New Orleans for the past two weeks came home that evening.
A second group of 130 firefighters was sent Sept. 17, while a similar number returned from New Orleans after completing their two-week tour.
FDNY members have been busy assisting the New Orleans Fire Department in the days after the flood. Firefighters also helped repair and maintain New Orleans' firehouses.
Capt. Jim Hay, one of several Incident Commanders in the recovering city, Sept. 16 presided over the reopening of Engine 33 in New Orleans. It's one of five firehouses that were brought back on-line that day.
`Symbolic' Reopening
"These firehouses suffered severe storm damage. They had no electricity or plumbing and needed to be swept and mopped and extensively repaired," he said. "It's quite a feat to bring New Orleans its own active Fire Department, and the support has been tremendous. The reopening is symbolic of the effort being put out by many people."
Captain Hay said fire suppression calls were still coming in at a steady pace, mostly due to intermittent electricity surges that created blazes. Last week's receding waters revealed many downed power lines that not only caused fires but were hazardous to the rescue personnel moving through the area, he added. Firefighters were kept busy controlling those.
For the first few weeks after the storm and floods hit New Orleans, local and volunteer firefighters were responding to calls from Port Algiers, the city's emergency withdrawal spot. Engine 33 was the first firehouse to begin dispatching locally from its usual neighborhood with?in city limits.
In between fire suppression, firehouse repairs, Captain Hay said FDNY members continued to help New Orleans firefighters fix up their homes.
"Almost 80 percent of the firefighters' homes suffered some kind of storm damage, so any member not on active duty was detailed to help individual firefighters," he said.
In total, nearly 400 Fire Department members were deployed to the Gulf Coast region to provide disaster assistance relief. FDNY members were deployed with FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Team and the American
Red Cross of Greater New York's Disaster Assistance Response Team.
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