While most of us could only shake our heads and watch the devastation unfold on the national news, dozens of brave emergency responders from Utah were up close and personal to assist with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Then, with no time to catch their breath, the group was relocated, from Tennessee to Florida, in anticipation of Hurricane Milton making landfall less than two weeks later.

You’ve likely already heard about the 77 members of Utah Task Force 1 who responded to the twin punch in late September and early October. But perhaps you didn’t know several of those FEMA team responders spend their non-Task Force time saving Taylorsville lives and dousing Taylorsville fires.

Unified Fire Authority operates two stations in Taylorsville. Station 117 (4965 S. Redwood Road) is one of the newest and largest fire stations in the UFA system. That’s where Heavy Rescue Specialist Sean Murphy has worked for about seven years. The 1999 Brighton High School graduate serves as a communication specialist on Utah Task Force 1.

The other station in Taylorsville is UFA Station 118, right next door to Taylorsville City Hall (5317 S. 2700 West). Riverton High School graduate (2006) Tyler Flygare has worked as a paramedic there since 2017. When he’s deployed with UT-TF1, Flygare is one of the team’s water rescue unit leads.

For the record, Murphy and Flygare aren’t the only Taylorsville firefighters who are members of UT-TF1. But in the quick turnaround from when they returned to Utah, and before our deadline, they were the only two weary emergency responders we could contact.

“When we are called into action, we have only a few hours to prepare to get on the road,” Flygare said. “It’s tough to say goodbye to your family. But my wife has been through this before. Our 40 Task Force members on the initial deployment drove nonstop, except for gas and food, about 37 hours to reach Knoxville, Tennessee. We stayed two nights in a hotel there as they gathered information about where we should be deployed.”

In this first UT-TF1 deployment of 2024, the team hauled some 80,000 pounds of life-saving equipment. After their pause in Knoxville, Utah team members went further east – to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains – where their accommodations were not as comfortable.

“We convoyed from Utah with two 53-foot semitrucks filled with equipment, four passenger travel vans, two Suburbans and three pickups,” Murphy said. “The trucks were towing two emergency response boats and a side-by-side. From Knoxville we went on to Bristol, Tennessee. We set up tents and established our base of operations at the Bristol Motor Speedway.”

The next day, Oct. 2, UT-TF1 members drove 40 miles south to the population 6,083 community of Erwin, Tennessee. Surrounded by a national forest – and visible from the famed Appalachian Trail – Erwin is the Unicoi County seat, and home to Unicoi County Hospital. Just days before the team’s arrival, 54 people – including 11 patients – had been airlifted from the hospital’s roof after the first floor filled with water.

“Our first task when we reached Erwin was to check all of the hospital rooms to make sure no one had been left behind,” Flygare said. “The first floor had flooded 15 feet deep just a couple of days earlier. The doors were all locked or warped. We had to use sledgehammers to breach 20 to 30 doors throughout the hospital. Thankfully no one was inside. Next, we searched a nearby gas station and a 4-story hotel. Again, luckily, we didn’t locate any victims.”

The Utah team worked in Erwin six days, Oct. 2 to 7. They did not have to perform any rescues. Team members located one deceased hurricane victim.

“Most of the residential area in Erwin was spared; but there was so much damage in their business area,” Murphy said. “Caskets were unearthed in a graveyard… there were dead animals and thick mud everywhere…entire trees washed into the hospital… debris was strewn as far as you could see. My primary mission was to keep everyone talking. We had to build a radio network.”

“This was akin to a warzone,” Flygare said. “Fires were sparking in the debris as we arrived. Local firefighters who had been there earlier witnessed victims floating away. It was just heartbreaking to see how devastated that little town was. It will take them years to dig out and rebuild.”

Weather experts say it is extremely rare, but not unprecedented, for two major hurricanes to strike roughly the exact same area in less than two weeks. By Oct. 7, it was clear that was about to occur in this region, as second punch Milton was bearing down on the western Florida coastline.

“We broke camp at the motor speedway and returned to Knoxville for one night, as they again tried to determine where we should deploy next,” Murphy explained. “From there we shifted south into Georgia. Another 37 members of our Utah Task Force 1 team flew into Atlanta and joined us.”

With 77 UT-TF1 members now in the area, the team set up cots and spent the night inside a Valdosta, Georgia conference center, just a few miles from the Florida state line. This was the night of Oct. 9 – the same evening Hurricane Milton made landfall. 

“That morning after Milton hit, our team was driving deeper into Florida,” Flygare said. “But thank goodness, the state was not hit as hard as was expected. They also have strong state resources in Florida for hurricane response. When we arrived in Ocala (80 miles north of Orlando) they held us there. Eventually FEMA decided they did not need our team. So, we were not actually deployed for Hurricane Milton response.”

Instead, the 40 UT-TF1 team members who had driven the emergency response equipment out from Utah flew back home. The 37 team members who had just flown to Georgia drove the equipment back, arriving Oct. 15. 

Murphy and Flygare agree, one of the most positive things about their deployment was everyone returning to Utah in good shape.

“None of our team members was hurt,” Murphy said. “We were the only task force nationwide that did not sustain any injuries. Seven 80-person FEMA teams were deployed for Hurricane Helene and 13 teams for Milton. There were also 45-person teams deployed… 15-person teams… lots of K9 teams and their handlers. And we were the only ones to return completely uninjured.”

“That was a real point of pride for us,” Flygare added. “There are a total of 28 federal Task Force teams nationwide, and all 28 were deployed in some manner to the hurricanes. Some type of injury was sustained on 27 of the 28 teams. We were proud to return in good shape.”

As it turned out, Utah Task Force 1 members were not in a position to directly save any lives during their deployment. That was a far cry from what they’d done during a similar natural disaster response seven years earlier.

“When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in August 2017, our Utah Task Force 1 team responded,” Flygare said. “Our team was credited with 300 human rescues over three days. We weren’t involved in that kind of immediate response this time. But I am still glad we were able to help those people get through such a horrible, difficult time a bit quicker.” 

With barely a minute to catch their breath following the Helene/Milton deployment, Flygare and Murphy were quickly back at their “Clark Kent jobs,” serving Taylorsville residents out of the city’s two UFA fire stations. λ