 Type 1 Command Team Expects Deployment Order within Hours September 01, 2005
The 33-member Type 1 team is one of about 16 national teams available on short notice to manage and direct responses to fires, floods and other natural or man-made disasters. Members work for a variety of state, federal and local governments. "Our Type 1 teams response to the shuttle explosion, and to the World Trade Center response, Hurricane Ivan last year and to floods and oil spills have been a source of pride for Alaska," Murkowski said. "Our thoughts and prayers will be with them during this deployment just as they are with the victims of this terrible natural disaster." John See of the Department of Natural Resources, the state's fire response coordinator and a public information officer for the Type 1 team, said members are getting ready, with leaders confirming which members are available to deploy, verifying immunization records, and checking flight schedules. Members will rendezvous at the Seattle airport before heading to a pre-deployment staging area in Florida, Mississippi, or Alabama, he said. Three Type 1 teams from other states have already been deployed to help with logistics and base camps in Mississippi, and two more are on request. Alaska responders can expect multiple 14-day deployments with a week break, Dean Brown, acting director of the state's Division of Forestry, which employs a majority of the team's members. "We will almost certainly get another request to deploy later this winter as well, because this will be a multiple-month response, and they'll be rotating through all the available teams," Brown said. The Alaska Team's assignment
will be part of a larger federal response effort under FEMA to
provide assistance to the affected state emergency management
agencies.
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