City Honors WPBFF
July 7, 2022
On June 27, 2022 the City of West Palm Beach honored our Fire Fighters with a presentation for Surfside Remembrance and Recognition for the Champlain Towers South Condo collapse in Surfside, Florida.
Below is a list of the brave men and women who volunteered to aid in the search and rescue for survivors and then a secondary search to locate any unaccounted-for victims.
FF Bryan Bartlett, FF Michael Beets, Lt. William Charbonneau, FF Elizaveta Clavijo, LT. Jacqueline Curtis, FF Jennifer Collins, FF Stephen Diaz-Lies, Lt. Brian Dolan, FF Josh Forbes, FF Luis Gonzalez, Driver/Engineer Iris Hernandez, FF Robert Jacques, Driver/Engineer Travis Kolb, Lt. Brett Koning, FF Nolan Lynch, FF Gil Mendez, Lt. Wilmer Morales, FF Alejandro Moreno, FF Richard Murphy, Lt. Jason Ramirez, Capt. Gregory Rogers, FF Benjamin Shultz, FF Daniel Valentin, Capt.
Adam MacKillop and his K-9 Phire (pronounced Fire) who is a female Black Labrador Retriever. Capt. MacKillop and Phire searched the collapsed rubble for victims. She is a live search K-9 who looks for live victims. Dogs can smell up to 100,000 times better than a human and play a key role in search and rescue. These USAR canines are highly trained and tested to National standards regularly. She was one of dozens of canines used in the response.
“Canines’ Role in Urban Search & Rescue: Canine search teams play a critical role in supporting local and state response efforts with the capability to locate disaster survivors and human remains using canine teams (dog and human handler).”
https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/national-preparedness/frameworks/urban-search-rescue/canines
Fire Chief Diana Matty also responded to the collapse and got to witness the selfless service of the firefighters involved in this mission, which lasted for 28 days. Chief Matty proudly said that with the robust response from the local fire departments in Dade County the State of Florida USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) Teams, and FEMA ( Federal Emergency Management Agency) the remains of all 98 victims were able to be located and returned to their families.
“The Surfside condo collapse: An operational play-by-play, from deployment to AAR. (After Action Review) Detailing the US&R (Urban Search & Rescue) system in Florida, challenges faced by SAR crews, and lessons learned from the catastrophic incident”
After the presentation I met the Fire Fighters in the City Courtyard and thanked them for their service and what they did for Champlain Towers and one firefighter remarked they followed the lead of their Fire Chief Matty and remarked she was a great leader. I regret not asking for his name.
K-9 Phire: Was also at the presentation and I asked permission to pat her and it was granted. I approached her and she immediately laid down, rolled over on her back and looked at me as if to say well I’m ready, are you going to rub my belly or not? I rubbed away.
Channel 5 (WPTV) SURFSIDE, Fla. — “On the one-year mark since the Surfside condominium collapse, first responders are reflecting on their time spent working at the collapse site. West Palm Beach firefighters recall grueling search in aftermath of Surfside condo collapse. Firefighters feel sorrow for those they couldn’t save”
West Palm Beach Fire Rescue Lt. Jason Ramirez and Lt. Jacqueline Curtis spoke to WPTV and told their stories of sorrow at not being able to save more people.
Another hero was Anthony Zorbaugh “We knew that people needed to eat,” he said. “So the biggest thing for us was to come down there with our product, with what we had, and be able to serve food. So the amount of chaos and the devastation that you’ve seen down there is life-transformational for our staff that was there.” Read the story below.
You hope you never need the assistance of the WPB Fire Department, but if you do they are ready and willing to put it all on the line for us and then deal with the aftermath.
In your travels if you see these hero’s out and about, please take the time to thank them for their service and watch the smile come across their faces. Always good to know your appreciated!
The end!