Beverly-Based Task Force 1 Heads To Oregon For Wildfire Support

BEVERLY, MA — It could have been the coast of Texas for Hurricane Laura. It was expected to be Alabama or Mississippi for Hurricane Sally. It turned out to be Oregon for the massive wildfires raging in the Northwest.

Wherever, and whenever, it was, members of the Beverly-based Massachusetts Urban Search and Task Force 1 knew they had to be ready to head into the danger zone and provide assistance to those in some of the most precarious situations on earth.

A 25-man unit from the Task Force left from Boston for Oregon Tuesday morning where they will provide search and rescue efforts for crews fighting the devastating blaze.

"Believe it or not we all hope that we never get the call," Thomas Gatzunis, the planning team manager and structure specialist for Task Force 1, told Patch. "Because when we get the call we know it's because someone is in peril and in danger. It could be someone's loved one or someone's family member. If that was one of our loved ones we would want the best of the best going out to help our families."

The program, which is managed through Beverly's Emergency Management Agency on behalf of the federal government, includes members from all New England states. Gatzunis said this unit's job will be not to battle the flames on the front lines, but to search for and document damaged structures and businesses, and search for missing persons, if necessary.

"All of our members are cross-trained," Gatzunis said, "with some having more focused training than others depending on what the mission is. We all train thousands of hours on the team to work together."

Gatzunis said a unit from the force, which included himself, made it as far as Roanoke, Virginia in its efforts to help any victims of Hurricane Laura before being called off when the damage from that storm was determined to be isolated. With more widespread destruction expected from floods from Hurricane Sally this week, he said plans were being made to deploy a unit back to the Gulf Coast before it was instead called to Oregon.

He said each member deployed brought a 24-hour pack and a 72-hour pack — "One big bag and one even bigger bag," Gatzunis said — of equipment and supplies, and typically can spend up to two weeks on any mission before being rotated out for a replacement unit.

The unit took a commercial flight from Logan Airport Tuesday and arrived in Oregon later in the day.

"When we are called," Gatzunis said, "every person in the unit wants to be the first person to go."