|  By Big Radio News Staff |

Two Janesville Fire Department employees are among a team of highly trained firefighters sent to North Carolina to help victims of massive flooding from Hurricane Helene.

The Janesville firefighters and 14 others make up Wisconsin Task Force 1, the state’s urban search and rescue task force in western North Carolina.

Lead coordinator Wisconsin Emergency Management says that since Saturday, the firefighters have been performing searches on muddy, rough terrain in mountainous spots where floods have cut off communication to residents. Others have been engaged in swift water searches in flooded streams and rivers.

It’s part of a larger search and rescue effort throughout the 600-mile-wide flood zone that’s developed after Hurricane Helene tore inward and unleashed unprecedented, torrential rainstorms.

Janesville Deputy Fire Chief John McManus is a local coordinator for Task Force 1. He says the two firefighters Janesville sent are from a larger team on the fire department that’s specially trained for urban and water searches during disasters.

“Right now we have 10 current members on Task Force 1. We’ve got hundreds and hundreds of hours of training in. (Water rescue) ropes, and structural collapses and trench rescue,” McManus says.

McManus says it’s the first time Janesville fire department have sent any of its specially trained urban rescuers to a natural disaster out of state. McManus says the firefighters will bring back a wealth of new experiences he says will better prepare all of Task Force 1’s members for any future local 0r statewide disasters.

“If a community loses track of their people because the ‘big flood’ happens, or the ‘big storm’ comes through, that Wisconsin Task Force 1 is the closest urban search and rescue task force for the state of Wisconsin,” he says.

Other firefighters in Wisconsin’s Task Force 1 are from departments in the cities of Appleton, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, La Crosse, Neenah/Menasha, Oshkosh, and Superior.

McManus says he’s been in touch with the fire fighters as they work in a western county in North Carolina. He says he’s not at liberty to relay specific information about their assignments and experiences. But he says as of midweek, the members of the task force are well, and they’re in high spirits.

“They’re working hard. They’re being sent out on missions every day. Everyone, all 16 of them, are in good spirits,” McManus says. “They’re doing good work.”