TUCSON, Ariz (KGUN) — As crews in the DC area work in recovery of the plane crash there, Tucson’s Fire Chief has a good appreciation of what they are going through because he is not only a fire chief in Tucson, he’s a former senior chief from a department in that area.
TFD Chief Chuck Ryan was an Assistant Chief for Fairfax County, Va.—one of many departments that rushed to a cooperative effort to cope with the crash. He says departments there practice together to prepare for mass casualty incidents, but a plane down in water makes everything tougher.
“Oh my gosh, it's well, first off, you're talking about a dive rescue operation at that point. And most fire departments are not dive rescue departments. There are some that do that, but mostly that falls to police functions," Ryan said.
"So getting the right resources on scene to be able to get down into submerged aircraft, especially when they're, you know, more than 10 or 15 feet down right, to get in there, to see if there's any survivors, to pull people out, that sort of thing.”
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He says one challenge is to get small boats to the scene able to move in close quarters.
“Just knowing the Potomac River, as I do, surprisingly, for a wide river, the current is very strong, and they've already said that there were parts of the wreckage located as far down as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, which is quite a distance from where the accident occurred.”
He says for now first responders will focus on their work.
“It's afterward, when you've had time to reflect. And you know, any, any firefighter who's dealt with a child victim. There were children on this aircraft. You know, those sorts of things are impacts that show up later, typically. And it takes a toll.”
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
