Comstock Fire Department Interim Chief Matt Beauchamp talked about the heart and soul Chief Ed Switalski poured into designing this engine, that he never got to see.

"Just before the incident happened on 94, we were getting ready to finalize plans to do the post paint inspection," he said.

To honor the chief, manufacturers put his picture and obituary in the windshield as work finished, reminding everyone of the engine's significance--until a special memorial patch was added.

"We knew we wanted to have his last alarm and the date, and they actually took the center of our patch here out and put that in the center of the memorial," Beauchamp said.

One of the first families Sissa found had a pre-teen daughter with serious medical problems whose feeding tube had come loose in the hurricane. The family was standing outside in the rain a few blocks away from a hospital, but they couldn’t reach the emergency room because the hurricane had turned the nearby Buffalo Bayou into a raging river.

Sissa scooped up the family in his truck and drove them to the hospital’s front door. Later he rescued two firefighters whose fire truck was stranded by water. He also rescued dozens of people from Westbury United Methodist Church in Meyerland. They had gone there seeking safety, only to watch the water creep inside the church walls. Sissa picked them up and drove them to a nearby Kroger’s grocery store, where buses transported them to shelters.

The monster trucks are also helping first responders get to flood-ravaged neighborhoods their vehicles can not reach, with some of them carrying firefighters and paramedics to those in need, James said.

In addition to the monster trucks, volunteers are using a fleet of six former military vehicles that are now owned by civilians to conduct rescues, James said.

Enter the Type 4 Wildland Engine, a Light Medium Terrain Vehicles that South Boundary Fire Protection District has in their lineup of fire protection vehicles. The monstrous six wheel drive was formerly a military vehicle. It is a five ton truck made by Stewart and Stevenson, originally used for military crew transport.

South Boundary has recently received a second version of this vehicle. The original one has proved its usefulness time and again against fires, as well as amazing people with its sheer size, in parades and the Boundary County Fair.