TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - A day after announcing that they would not be traveling to Texas to assist in the rescue effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Toledo Fire and Rescue got the call on Friday that their help was needed.
The Texas EMA called Chief Luis Santiago on Friday morning, at which time eight men loaded up, and took off on their nineteen hour journey.
Members of the Toledo Fire and Rescue Hurricane Harvey response team anticipated a 12-14 workday on Sunday after unpacking and checking their equipment on Saturday.
The team arrived after an uneventful trip.
On Monday, TFD got the request to help only to be told later they were not needed. That was where things stood until Friday's phone call.
"They called because they need us. We accepted their offer and we're on our way. The main goal for me is making sure that everybody's safe, we're not going to put any of our crew members in harm's way," said John Kaminski, TFD team leader for the Harvey mission.
This mission requires both the Ohio and Texas EMA to work out logistics, which is the reason for the delay.
But now they can help those already down there providing relief.
"There's crews that have been down there working for almost a week now and we're going down their to give them a much-needed and much-deserved break," said Kaminski.
"I, as chief am very proud, Toledo should be proud, and the citizens of Texas or wherever they are deployed are going to be well served," said Chief Santiago.
The crew is on its way to College Station, Texas where they will learn more details about their mission.
"We have been briefed enough to know what our first mission statement is. They're doing search and recovery and active rescues are still going on down there," said Kaminski.
College Station is about one hour north of Houston and they will have a much better idea of where they are needed when they arrive.
What the men do know is that they have to be self-sustaining for 8-10 days which means they will have to provide their own food, water and shelter.
"This mission, even though there's a lot that's unknown is planned," said Sterling Rahe with the Toledo Fire Department. "And they've taken all the precautions and have packed everything that they anticipate."
It's expected that they'll be working 12-14 hour days.
The crew and equipment making the trip was carefully picked so they are able to handle whatever comes their way.
"We are bringing with us some very highly trained technical experts in different areas such as swift water, dive, Hazmat, WMD, people that are trained in the ICS system as well as paramedics to take care of our crew and stuff like that after we come back for the night to lay down," said Kaminski.
"I think that we have a lot of our bases covered and the team that we've assembled is really a good team," said Chief Santiago.
Toledo Fire leaders says they will keep WTOL 11 updated once the crew arrives.
