Salisbury Fire Dept. offers assistance to Baltimore recovery efforts
Says training is key to being ready to respond to emergency situations
SALISBURY, Md. – When the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday morning, First Responders across the area sprung into action. Local, State and Federal agencies are all working together on the incident.
“Any event of this magnitude puts a tremendous strain on the resources,” says Salisbury Fire Dept. Chief Rob Frampton. “There’s not one department in this country that could handle this event alone. This is a significant event that relies on multiple agencies from different areas, not just fire departments, not just EMS but you’ve got police departments, you’ve got, you know MDOT, you’ve got federal agencies that are there, you’ve got coast guard. So they’ll rely upon their mutual aid agreements and their MOUs that they already have established.”
Chief Frampton says the Salisbury Fire Department has already offered aid in the situation.
“We’ve actually made the State aware that Salisbury does have a dive team and a boat . . . should they need that,” says Chief Frampton. “This event is going to take days for recovery and you know getting stuff out of the water, getting the ship back floating and operable, and then it’s going to be months after that . . . while they may need our resources, albeit not right for the emergency that’s going on but two, three, four, five days down the road for recovery and debris removal and things like that.”
But it’s incidents of this magnitude that highlight the reason emergency crews have extensive, ongoing training, ensuring they’re prepared to respond and handle anything that comes their way. Just this past weekend they took part in a joint training session at the Salisbury Airport. That’s on top of their regular training at their own facilities.
Chief Frampton explains, “Departments, when faced with this type of emergency, they rely on that training and they rely on the relationships that are created before the emergency begins.”
Following this large scale event, first responders across the State will study the response to continue training should something like this happen closer to home. Chief Frampton says he is confidant in local fire departments like Salisbury to handle situations like these.
“We’re well trained; we have these agreements on a local level in place all the way up to the State. So if something like this were to happen here I have no doubt and I have full confidence in the response capabilities, not just here in Salisbury but on the Lower Eastern Shore and Delaware as well, that we would be able to handle an emergency with our allied agencies to make sure that everything is handled properly,” he says.
The Salisbury Fire Department joins sentiments across the State offering up thoughts and prayers for those that have been impacted by this tragic event.
The National Disaster Distress helpline is available for crisis counseling to people affected by the bridge collapse. That number is 1-800-958-5990.
