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First responders answer the call

The volunteer rescuers handle mostly heart attacks and falls, but Monday was different.

By ERIN SULLIVAN
Published December 27, 2006

SAN ANTONIO - It was pouring rain and the neighborhood looked like a bomb exploded, roofs gone, trees down, windows shattered, and Barbara Klingensmith stood in the center of it all, wondering if they'd come.

The page had gone out: Report to the command center at intersection of Moshie and Caddyshack.

So they knew where to go - but would they?

Klingensmith is the captain and founder of the first responders, a group of three dozen volunteers trained in emergency-rescue that works with Pasco County Fire and Rescue. They answer calls in the senior community where they live, the Tampa Bay Golf and Country Club in San Antonio.

Their average age is 70.

They work in shifts, so someone is on call 24 hours a day. Their fleet consists of two golf carts, their supplies the same as county EMTs. They are trained in disasters - but all of their crises in past years have been things like heart attacks, strokes and people who have fallen. The goal is to ensure fast response time in their community, striving to show up within 90 seconds of being called. They are the only group of their kind in Pasco.

But they had never dealt with something like this - a tornado that ripped through the neighborhood, damaging 80 homes, as well as 20 on a nearby street.

Klingensmith - a former firefighter - was used to this. But for the others, maybe it would be too much, she figured.

It wasn't.

One by one, they left their Christmas dinners half-cooked on the stove, left their families, their warm, dry homes to work hours in the rain and mud and glass shards and jagged metal. Even the few dozen "civilian" responders who do paperwork and fundraising came to help.

First responders were on the scene two minutes after the first 911 call. By the time Pasco County Fire and Rescue got there five minutes later, responders already were knocking on doors to make sure people were okay.

"They came on Christmas day," Klingensmith said Tuesday. She's a tough woman, but her voice went soft. "Christmas is a time for love.

"They certainly showed it yesterday."

Injuries were few and minor, so the responders busied themselves with community service. "Are you cold?" they asked people. "Can I get you a blanket?"

They got on roofs and hammered tarps over holes. They taped plastic over missing car windows. They took people to the community center and made sure they were fed Christmas dinner, with turkey and ham and mashed potatoes and the lot. They called family members and homeowners who were out of town. They invited victims to stay at their homes or arranged for hotel stays.

A day later, they were back on the scene. A small group of responders are trained to assess interior home damage. They spent all day Tuesday tromping through damaged houses and trying to talk residents into leaving if it wasn't safe to stay.

They didn't do a monetary assessment, but charted things like the number of broken windows and the number of holes in the roof. Their reports will be turned over to county emergency management officials.

"They are doing a good job," said Chief Mike Ciccarello of Pasco County Fire and Rescue. "They're filing extensive reports on each house."

Late Tuesday afternoon, the responders gathered at the community center. They were weary. Some worked all day Christmas, then rose at dawn Tuesday to go out again.

Their official part in the disaster relief is most likely over now, though they will continue helping storm victims. It will get back to the norm - heart attacks, strokes, falls. But now, if disaster touches their community again, they know they can do it. And Klingensmith knows they'll be there.

"I'm so proud of them," she said.

[Last modified December 27, 2006, 06:58:12]