Murfreesboro Fire Rescue Deploys to Assist With Texas Flooding

Murfreesboro Fire Rescue Department has deployed a team of trained swift water rescue personnel to assist with the flooding in Texas. Eleven (11) MFRD personnel along with three (3) Rutherford County Special Operations Response Team (SORT) members deployed with rescue boats and other equipment to travel to Texas following a briefing at TEMA on Sidco Drive.

The combined Murfreesboro and County personnel and equipment will form a Type 1 Swift water Rescue Team, which is the highest level. They will join the rescuers already on the ground and will be charged with conducting operations of search, rescue & recovery for humans and animals in swift-water, swift-water/flood, still-water and still-water/flood environments. All of the personnel are medically trained and will provide care to the sick and injured as needed and assist with transportation to the nearest location for secondary air or land transport.

The team left the SORT building around 11 am to join other teams from Middle and Southeastern Tennessee to convoy to Texas. They are scheduled to report at Texas A&M University’s Emergency Training Center in College Station Texas and will deploy to action from there. This will be an 8-day deployment with limited availability of shelter, food and water and the teams are expected to be self-sufficient for the first 72 hours.

Chief Mark Foulks states “I am so proud of our department and our capabilities to assist other agencies in their time of need. Please continue to pray for the people in the Houston and surrounding areas of Texas.”

Assistance was requested through the Tennessee Fire Service Mutual Aid System, the organization tasked with providing Mutual Aid resources for disasters.