The recent mission to assist with search and rescue after the Maui wildfires was among the most difficult Capt. Jason Light said he has experienced.
Light, with the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, led Maryland Task Force 1, and said that this deployment ranks up with the Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11 attacks.
Light said the conditions in Maui were challenging.
“The asphalt temperatures were roughly 170 degrees in the midafternoon sun in Maui,” Light said.
Crews suited up in steel-toed boots in their dark uniforms and respirators. While the air temperatures might look comfortable at first glance, Light said the “real-feel” temperatures was more like in the high ’90s.
“The objective was literally to search every inch of the structures in the streets and the vehicles that were within our division,” Light said.
He used the term “delayering” to describe the search of the homes and businesses, most of them two stories.
While the task force members had daily specialty care from a doctor to wrap and protect their feet, a veterinarian came up with some help for the canines working in the same conditions.
The veterinarians came up with bootees for the dogs that Light described as “unsung heroes” for the search and rescue work these animals performed.
Light said his team worked closely with the first responders from Maui, who had been working nonstop since the start of the historic fires that caused so much devastation. At one point, Maryland Task Force 1 and the local firefighters exchanged state flags in an emotional ceremony, Light said.
The mission included shipping 60,000 pounds of equipment to Maui and back. Task Force 1 members have been undergoing a mandatory 72-hour rest period.
Communications from the work site were very strictly controlled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Light said.
“Do not talk about your mission. Do not post photos on social media,” Light said about the instructions they got, in order to “respect the cultural sensitivity of the County of Maui.”
Light said that was a first in his experience, but that he was permitted to one media interview during the team’s time in Maui.
Light spoke to reporters Wednesday, during the regular weekly briefing usually hosted by Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich.
Light said he was enormously proud of the teams that worked in the recovery efforts in Hawaii.
“By the end of the mission, you could see in their faces their exhaustion,” Light said. “They never once faltered, slowed down, and just kept going.”
