GREENSBORO, N.C. — Seventeen Greensboro Fire Department firefighters are back home after traveling to Asheville and Buncombe County over the weekend, prepared to assist with the Hurricane Isaias response and potential emergencies in Western North Carolina.
Assistant Chief Bryan Vickery said the team’s role was to respond to the whole western branch of North Carolina if an emergency arose. He said crews were ready for worst-case scenarios, including landslides, structural collapses and loss of life, the kind of calls that come with heavy rain in steep terrain.
Fortunately, the team did not have to respond to any major emergencies during the weekend. Vickery said that when the impact is not as large as the anticipation, it is a huge relief for responders. Even without a major rescue, he said, people at a gas station came up to thank the crew for being there and ready to act.
The Greensboro rescue team has responded to emergencies across the country, as far north as Vermont and also in Florida and Texas. Vickery said the nature of rescues changes by region: down east, crews see flat water rescues and wide area flooding, while in the mountains the danger is rapid water and landslides. He said lessons from those deployments are applied back home to make Greensboro safer.
The Greensboro Fire Department is a career department led by Chief Jim Robinson. It is ISO Class 1 rated and CFAI-accredited, and its headquarters is at 1514 North Church Street. Deputy chiefs Dwayne Church, Alex Gossett and Brent Gerald oversee emergency services, administration and support services.
