“When members come back, they’re cleaned up head to toe so they’re not contaminated,” Bargiacchi said. With an expertise in hazardous materials, Bargiacchi was tapped to oversee the team’s hazmat efforts.ĭecontamination areas were set up to ensure people in flood waters, including teammates, stay clean. ![]() Twelve adults, one child and several dogs were rescued by the crew on Friday in the city of Wharton, where the Colorado River and Peach Creek crested over, Bargiacchi said. The team over past days has provided search-and-rescue efforts around Houston. The Brentwood resident was sent out as part of a 74-member, Oakland-based FEMA task force, which he has been part of for six years. We hope we can use those skills to help out.”Īnthony Bargiacchi, a 37-year-old engineer with Novato Fire Protection District and a member of Marin County’s hazardous materials team, was deployed to the disaster zone on Aug. “We can swim a boat in dangerous conditions, get someone with a boat and provide medical care. “In a flood situation, those are handy skills,” Burns said. Burns and Ferrari are emergency medical technicians, or EMTs, and Gilbert is an emergency medical responder, a paramedic with less training hours.Īll men are certified to drive boats and to use rescue boats in surf conditions. The National Park Service lifeguards are certified with the American Red Cross and United States Lifesaving Association. ![]() Our thoughts will be with them, the people of Texas and the other first responders.” “We are sending the best of the best when it comes to water rescue. “I am so proud of these lifeguards and honored that GGNRA is able to commit our talented staff to assist with Hurricane Harvey emergency response,” Cicely Muldoon, a Golden Gate National Recreation Area superintendent, said in a written statement. The lifeguards were anticipating working with a Nebraska Federal Emergency Management Agency team to assist Houston’s fire department with evacuating residents in unsafe conditions. Buildings have huge fans to air out buildings.” ![]() “People have emptied out their houses, there’s furniture by the road. “We ran into areas that had flooded and the floodwaters receded,” Burns said. The trio drove into the region on a route that had not been hit hard by the hurricane, but as they drove nearly four hours to different emergency staging sites across the area on Friday, the devastation quickly became apparent. He made the trip with Nick Ferrari, 24, and Olliver Gilbert, 20, both Marin residents and Golden Gate National Recreation Area lifeguards. The 45-year-old is one of a handful of Marin’s highly-specialized emergency responders sent to Texas in past days to provide disaster relief after Hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc on the area, killing at least 44 people.īurns, a lifeguard at Stinson Beach, made the 27-hour drive to an emergency staging site at College Station, Texas, on Thursday. “As first responders, whether police or lifeguard, we want to be able to help people.” “This is what we do - we try to help people out,” said Patrick Burns, a Sausalito resident and supervisory lifeguard with Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Three Marin men felt fortunate in recent days as they loaded a truck with wetsuits, waterproof radios and 20 gallons of drinking water and headed to a water-logged Texas with a rescue boat in tow.
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