South Florida first responders return home from Hurricane Milton response

Six days after the storm, the first responders from South Florida Task Force Two returned home to Miami.

The group of 110 firefighters from several departments, including Miami Fire-Rescue, deployed to the west coast as Hurricane Milton was making landfall. They headed to Sarasota and Clearwater, the hardest-hit areas, and jumped right into the fray.

“Our need is absolutely necessary, our members are trained in swift water rescue, in land-based search and rescue operations, they hit the ground running, these are true professionals, they’re ready to encounter and mitigate hazards that they are presented with in an austere environment,” said Chris Diaz, the task force leader. “Our members absolutely assisted members of the community in the Clearwater area, Sarasota area, Siesta Key, we were generally focused on search and rescue.”

The Miami team was in the thick of the most damages areas. Diaz said it can get emotional to comfort people who are going through their worst days.

“They’re humans, I mean they’re true professionals, they’re competent, they deliver outstanding work, however they’re humans, they know they’re going out to someone’s home that they may have lost,” Diaz said. “It’s great to be home, but I will say that we don’t know what’s brewing on the horizon and what you see behind me is 110 members that just got back from the west coast and they’re preparing all of our resources to be out the door within three hours if we get activated again.”

Hopefully, that won’t happen any time soon.

Diaz said without a doubt, lives were saved by the fact that most people in the evacuation zones heeded the warnings and left. He also praised FEMA and the state of Florida for prepositioning assets so as soon as the storm passed, the search and rescue operations could begin.