By Chris Bavender
Several members of the Carmel Fire Dept. are among Indiana Task Force One, a specialized team of 80 first responders who were mostly recently deployed in October to support rescue and recovery efforts after Hurricane Matthew made landfall in South Carolina.
“We were a Federal Urban Search and Rescue asset assigned to the state of Georgia for the duration of the incident,” said Steven Frye, CFD asst. chief of operations. “Luckily, Georgia was not affected as heavily as it initially seemed, and INTF-1 was de-mobilized and returned home after a seven-day deployment there.”
Frye has been a member of INTF-1 for 11 years, joining the Rescue Team in the summer of 2005. In his tenure with the task force he’s served in many roles, including Rescue Team manager. He’s also a FEMA Structural Collapse Technician Lead Instructor, training other members to “perform the duties of a professional rescuer.”
INTF-1 is one team comprised of seven specially trained and equipped sub-groups, each made up of people with the knowledge and skills to operate in less than ideal environments for long periods of time with minimal external support.
“Our requirements are that all Rescue Group members must be career firefighters working for fire departments in Marion or surrounding counties,” Frye said. “All Rescue members must have a minimum of five years of experience working for a career fire department prior to being appointed to the team. This is to ensure members have had time to prove their abilities working in a system that recognizes a formal chain-of-command, and also to provide opportunities to learn how to conduct themselves in challenging situations.”
To stay on the team, rescue members must complete monthly training and participate in a deployment or training deployment every other year. The training in turn benefits the City of Carmel.
“Our firefighters who serve on Task Force One not only assist other regions during emergencies when their need is so great, they are acquiring skills that they can use for incidents in our own community,” Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard said. “The fact that their participation in this response agency provides them hours of free training is also a benefit because we get highly skilled first responders without extra cost to taxpayers.”
Frye said there is nowhere else in the state where first responders can gain such a wide range of knowledge and skills.
“We have an opportunity to build skill sets that are directly applicable to our duties at the fire department, and we bring those skills back and use them to increase the capabilities of the fire department and to make the City of Carmel safer,” Frye said.
TASK FORCE MEMBERS
CFD Indiana Task Force One members include:
- Gary Brandt
- Scott Tierney
- Steve Frye
- Kurt Weddington
- Cory Anderson
- Greg Webb
- Brian Hutchinson
