(Colorado Newsline) Last week, the Colorado first responders whom the federal government deployed to help with Hurricane Helene and Milton recovery efforts on the East Coast returned home.

Colorado Task Force 1 is a search and rescue team consisting of about 200 trained members from around the state, including firefighters, paramedics, physicians, structural engineers and other specialists. It is one of 28 search and rescue task forces across the country under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the National Urban Search & Rescue Response System.

FEMA deployed about 80 members of CO-TF1 to parts of Florida and North Carolina over the last few weeksas hurricane destruction stretched local resources thin. First responders from about two dozen organizations around Colorado work with the task force, as well as civilians including physicians, communications specialists, K9 handlers and structural engineers. FEMA funds the task force’s daily operations as well as emergency response efforts, including personnel costs, travel costs and other expenses.

Image

Steve Aseltine is a chief with West Metro Fire Rescue in Lakewood, the sponsoring agency for CO-TF1. He has worked with CO-TF1 for 27 years and is now a task force leader, overseeing operations when the task force is deployed.

“When we go into these environments and we go into these communities when they really need help, I think that’s extremely rewarding because we’re able to provide assistance where other people can’t,” Aseltine said.

Between the task force’s time in Florida and North Carolina, Aseltine said his team searched thousands of structures and six or seven miles of river bed flood plain, going through banks, debris piles and snags along the river.

Aseltine said one neighborhood in North Carolina was particularly difficult to access because a main access road was washed out. He said his team was able to get a utility terrain vehicle through to check on people in the neighborhood, and they had “full accountability for all the other people and families” in the area.

“They were all taking care of each other and helping each other out,” Aseltine said. “Even the local fire stations all had a bunch of supplies for the community. If you needed something, you could swing by there to get it.”

Aseltine said task force members, most of whom are firefighters, came across a structure fire during their search and rescue efforts. The power in the house came back on, and something was on the stove and ignited the kitchen. They were able to put the fire out with a garden hose from outside and prevent the house from burning down before the local fire department arrived.

From Tampa Bay to Asheville

When the task force is notified of a deployment, Aseltine said members have four hours to assemble resources it will need and come together at West Metro’s training center before getting on the road. He said 45 members were initially deployed to the Tampa Bay area in Florida to help with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The task force then moved to North Carolina outside of Asheville where members worked for about another week.

Aseltine said FEMA called the task force back to Florida after that to help with Hurricane Milton preparations, requesting closer to 80 members as opposed to the original 45. He said because those members were in the field for about two weeks already, they decided to do a “complete personnel swap.” Most members of the first cohort of 45 went home, and 75-80 members flew out to take over in Florida. The second, larger cohort of the task force then again moved to North Carolina after finishing work in Florida.

When we go into these environments and we go into these communities when they really need help, I think that's extremely rewarding because we're able to provide assistance where other people can't.

– Steve Aseltine, of West Metro Fire Rescue and Colorado Task Force 1

The 28 search and rescue task forces across the country are trained to the same standards, so they’re all able to work “seamlessly” together, Aseltine said. After a disaster like a hurricane, members conduct a variety of searches and structural damage assessments.

“If we do have signs that there may be somebody alive or human remains, then we’ll work to further identify that and … do a more focused search in those areas to see what we find,” Aseltine said. “We also work very closely with local emergency management teams and emergency operations centers to do intelligence gathering so that we’re making sure we’re searching in the right areas for the right people that are reported missing.”

CO-TF1 also has full-time staff who manage day-to-day operations and support logistics from Colorado when the task force is deployed, Aseltine said, helping manage equipment issues or finding lodging for task force members.

“It’s a lot of sleepless nights and pretty hard work when the team’s deployed, and that means for everybody — back home and when you’re out in the field as well,” Aseltine said.

Terrorism, hurricanes, wildfires

Pierce Power-Quitmeyer supports CO-TF1 as a communications technician, handling radio programming and maintenance, internet connectivity, and the dissemination of communications plans formed at higher levels of the task force. He’s worked as a civilian data engineer at West Metro Fire Rescue for the last three years and joined the task force earlier this year.

“For me, it was really just an opportunity to do something a little bit different from my day job and an opportunity to get out in the field and make an impact to communities in a different way, especially ones that have been hit by … something that’s pretty devastating to the community,” Power-Quitmeyer said.

Image

The deployment to Florida and North Carolina was the first time Power-Quitmeyer was able to use a lot of the skills he learned from joining the task force, which helped build his confidence for supporting future missions, he said. He also enjoyed working with other people from around the state “that you usually don’t have the opportunity to interact with.”

Aseltine said no single local emergency response team can be fully prepared to manage high-level disasters like Hurricane Helene or Milton. He remembered when Colorado needed help following the 2013 floods, when torrential rain broke precipitation records across the state and upended multiple communities. FEMA called upon other states’ urban search and rescue teams to come help.

“We needed the help back then,” Aseltine said. “I never would have thought that in Colorado, but it did happen. It happened right here in our backyard. So not only do we do it on the local and state level here, but then we also provide that service out to the rest of the country.”

Power-Quitmeyer said the resources task force is able to bring to communities allows them to accomplish big tasks quickly while allowing local emergency responders to focus on their work.

“I think just the speed with which they can help assess some of that damage, find individuals for that community and help develop a plan, a roadmap for how to best use resources to help get those communities back on their feet is really impactful,” Power-Quitmeyer said.

In his time with the task force, Aseltine helped respond to disasters including the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Hurricane Katrina. This year, the task force also went to New Mexico to help with search and rescue efforts following Salt and South Fork fires.

In all of the deployments he’s been a part of, Aseltine said the gratitude people have for the support the task force provides is consistently the same.

“All the folks up there were just so nice, so positive and so just thankful that we were there,” Aseltine said, “and that’s really one of the things that makes this all just so powerfully rewarding at the end of the day.”

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and X.