Greg Bluestein
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
(TNS)

WRIGHTSVILLE — They are the far-flung towns that often feel invisible when major storms wreak havoc on Georgia. And officials are still working in these rural areas to uncover the extent of Hurricane Helene’s devastation.

While former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris all made separate visits this week to Valdosta and Augusta, two epicenters of Helene’s wrath, some of the most serious fallout took place in far smaller towns and settlements across east Georgia.

Gov. Brian Kemp led a two-day tour through about a dozen of these off-the-radar communities this week, bringing along state emergency officials, local legislators and community leaders to see the scope of the damage for themselves.

Even hardened emergency officials were stunned at what they saw. Flattened chicken coups. Ruined crops. Downed trees. Homes and businesses smashed beyond repair. Communities in crisis.

But they also took heart at the first responders and savvy local leaders who helped respond after the deadliest Georgia storm in decades.

“Y’all are all supermen,” Matt Hatchett, a local legislator, told a group of exhausted chainsaw workers, firefighters and medics gathered early Wednesday at a Wrightsville fire station.

“Just remember that you’re taking care of everybody else, so you’ve got to remember to take care of yourself.”

At each stop, Kemp told residents a similar message. Helene was the most significant storm to barrage Georgia in his lifetime and cleaning up the mess it left behind will be anything but simple.

“We aren’t going to sugarcoat anything. It’s going to be a long, hard, tough recovery,” he said. “But we’re working hard, and we’ll work hard every day until we get it done.”

Here are a few of their stories.

Signs of progress

DOUGLAS — Getting to the seat of Coffee County is like navigating a maze.

Downed power lines, splintered trees and telephone poles split like toothpicks line the roads into Douglas. At its height, the storm knocked out power to 99% of the county’s Georgia Power customers.

As Kemp entered town, he marveled grimly at the destruction. Even a monstrous hurricane Helene’s size couldn’t have caused this devastation. It looked like a cluster of tornadoes spawned by the storm crisscrossed town.

It could have been worse. Local officials credit the quick thinking of Steve Carver, the county’s emergency management chief, for aggressively deploying resources and stationing first responders as Helene homed in on Georgia.

By the middle of the week, key routes around the county of roughly 40,000 were cleared and a massive potable water truck rumbled into town. A few more trucks were supposed to arrive later in the week. Crews scattered arou

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin – Ascent Integrated Tech is proud to announce a major deployment of its on-scene accountability technology with the Milwaukee Fire Department. This deployment, driven by the leadership of Fire Chief Aaron Lipski, represents a significant step forward in enhancing firefighter safety and operational effectiveness.

Fire Chief Lipski has served the City of Milwaukee for more than 25 years. He joined as a fourth generation Milwaukee firefighter and has served as fire chief since 2021. In August, he was awarded Fire Chief of the Year by the International Association of Fire Chiefs- Great Lakes Division. He also serves as the President of the Wisconsin Fire Chief Association (PDF). This relationship began three years ago during one of Ascent’s first conversations with a fire chief and has since evolved into a key partnership, culminating in Milwaukee becoming the site of Ascent’s first major deployment in a large metro area.

“Chief Lipski was the first Metro Fire Department that we spoke with, and his leadership and commitment to innovation have been instrumental to our success,” said Paul Couston, CEO of Ascent Integrated Tech. “His dedication to leveraging technology to enhance safety and accountability for first responders aligns perfectly with our mission, and we’re honored to work alongside such an incredible leader “

The deployment of Ascent’s technology will equip Milwaukee Incident Command with real-time location tracking and on-scene accountability, providing crucial insights that enhance situational awareness and decision-making during emergencies. Built on the Team Awareness Kit (TAK)—a platform currently utilized by the military—this technology ensures robust and reliable performance while seamlessly integrating with existing systems for smooth implementation. Recently, Ascent Integrated Tech demonstrated this innovative technology at the Republican National Convention (RNC), highlighting its capability to enhance public safety in high-stakes environments. Furthermore, burn tests conducted across the U.S. have proven the reliability and effectiveness of our technology under real-world conditions. The Milwaukee Fire Department’s adoption of this solution sets a new standard for innovation and cooperation in the fire service, both locally and nationwide.

About Ascent Integrated Tech

Ascent enhances the safety and operational efficiency of first responders and military personnel by providing leadership with real-time visibility into their team’s location. Founded four years ago at the Illinois Fire Service Institute in Champaign, IL, Ascent’s technology is now deployed with seven fire departments across the U.S. and is actively pursuing partnerships with the Air Force.

About the Milwaukee Fire Department

The Milwaukee Fire Department, also known as the MFD, was established January 1, 1875. The department consists of 30 Fire Stations,

TRACI HASTINGS
The Chronicle, Willimantic, Conn.
(TNS)

SCOTLAND — The Scotland Volunteer Fire Department will open its doors to the public this Saturday.

An Open House will be held at the Scotland Public Safety Complex from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Visitors will have the chance to meet Smokey the Bear while learning about fire safety, and take tours of the fire station, which was recently upgraded through grants from Lowe’s Hometowns, an initiative from the home improvement retailer.

Earlier this year, Scotland’s department received $30,000 for the construction of bunkrooms and an office and the renovation of the kitchen. Another $2,500 in grant funding came from the local Lisbon branch of the store through its Heroes program, which contributed miscellaneous items to bring the project toward completion. Sherwin-Williams, the paint manufacturing company, donated paint, which volunteers from Lisbon Lowes applied to the interior of the station in August as part of its community service outreach program.

“The Lowes renovation has been completed,” Scotland Deputy Chief Michael Gurnack said. “They came out great.”

“We are putting on some finishing touches,” Chief Jason Beaumont added.

The department was founded din 1947 and the current station was built in 1999.

Scotland’s first responders received more funding through a community grant from utility company Eversource. The department used the funds to purchase carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers and reflective address numbers. All of these will be distributed to Scotland residnts at the event.

“We will be handing them out to our town residents, one per household, while supplies last,” Gurnack said.

The reflective address numbers can be added to posts at the end of a driveway or on a mailbox post to help guide emergency responders to the right place in the event of a crisis.

Also at the event will be representatives from the Connecticut State Police K9 Unit, and from LifeStar, the critical-care helicopter service based at Hartford HealthCare’s Backus Hospital in Norwich. The helicopter will land at the station at approximately 2 p.m., if possible.

There will also be a drone demonstration, an inflatable bounce house for children and raffles, with a chance to win a DuroMax Power Equipment generator from Accurate Power LLC. Refreshments will be available.

The public safety complex is located at 47 Brook Road.

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(c)2024 The Chronicle (Willimantic, Conn.)

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Scotland receives new radios thanks to AFG grant

We are pleased to announce that we were recently notified that our request for an Assistance for Firefighters Grant (AFG) has been accepted, the department said in a Facebook post. This grant was regional effort by the following fire departments:

• Atwood Hose Fire Company

• Baltic Fire Department

• Canterbury Fire Department

• Chaplin Fire Department

• Hampton Fire Department

• Scotland Fire Department

The funding awarded in this grant will be used to purchase much-needed dual-band portable radios for each department. The new radios will replace equipment that is nearly 20-years old. The technology in the new radios will allow for better communication within each department and interoperability between mutual aid agencies throughout our region.

We would like to thank Representative Joseph Courtney and Senators Blumenthal and Murphy for their su

By Alan M. Petrillo

The Belton, Missouri Fire Department was looking to purchase a 2,000-gallon tanker with a relatively small footprint because it didn’t want an oversized vehicle. After researching several tanker makers, Belton chose to go with Danko Emergency Equipment to build a pumper-tanker with 50% more water than they were first seeking, yet with a manageable overall length and height.

The fire department protects the city of 20,000 people, and also contracts to protect an adjoining rural area bringing its total protection area to 33 square miles. John Sapp, Belton’s fire chief, says the district is a mix of single family and multi-family residences, commercial structures, and some light industrial businesses. “The department has 54 employees, 48 of whom are paid full-time firefighters,” Sapp points out. “We have two stations that house our new pumper-tanker, a Precision pumper, a Pierce 107-foot Ascendant aerial ladder, two brush trucks, three ambulances, a battalion chief, and a reserve pumper.”

Sapp notes that Belton Fire had not dealt with Danko before, but after they checked out a demo pumper-tanker Danko had built, decided to sit down and talk with them about building a rig for Belton. “At first we started talking about a pumper-tanker with a 2,000-gallon water tank,” Sapp says, “but the Danko people showed us how we could get a 1,000-gallon per minute (gpm) pump and a 3,000-gallon tank on a tandem rear axle vehicle that would be only slightly longer than a 2,000-gallon model.”

Steve Borts, Danko sales representative who sold the pumper-tanker to Belton, says the rig is built on a Freightliner M2 106 chassis and two-person cab, with a 220-inch aluminum body, a 194 inch wheelbase, a 29 foot 5 inch overall length, and a 9 foot 8 inch overall height. He adds that the pumper-tanker is powered by a 360-horsepower (hp) Cummins engine, and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission.

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