Washington first responders head to Irma

At the Pierce County Emergency Management warehouse, an 80-member team from Washington State raced for a Friday night flight to face Hurricane Irma and rescue those who need help.

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Seattle firefighter Ryan Nash leads the hazardous materials team.

“Being able to one take care of our personnel as we go down also taking care and making sure we’re able to isolate an area and be able to get as many people out as quickly as we can in a potentially contaminated environment.”

Two semitrailers of the task force’s gear was packed and dispatched to Macon, Georgia. The 80 member team will stay at an Air Force base there, while they await their assignment to an area damaged by the hurricane.

A smaller group of 17 members spent six days conducting water searches in Houston — in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

Tacoma firefighter Buck Copsey just got back from Houston.

“We found some empty houses, we found some people who wanted to stay there, we found some people who were very glad that we came to check on them.”

Ten of the 17 didn’t make it all the way home from Harvey, they turned around in Richland, Washington, and are now on the way to face the challenges of Irma.

The work is hard and dangerous but emotionally rewarding.

“This is what we enjoy, being able to go in and being able to make a difference. That’s the big thing for us, being able to feel like we make a difference”, said Nash.

Members of the task force don’t know when they’ll be able to come home. Typically they deploy for about two weeks.