Ten members of the Owensboro Fire Department\u2019s Technical Rescue Team were deployed early Friday morning to assist with search and rescue efforts in London, Kentucky, following a devastating tornado outbreak that swept through the state overnight.<\/p>\n
OFD personnel were activated by a mutual aid request from Kentucky Emergency Management. The team joined rescue crews from Louisville, Covington, and Paducah to perform secondary searches near the London-Corbin Airport, ultimately combing through dozens of damaged homes.<\/p>\n
Battalion Chief Corey Gant, who oversees OFD\u2019s Special Operations, said he received the call around 1 a.m. Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got the call about 1 a.m. from the guy who runs the ESF-9 desk with Kentucky Emergency Management, which is their search and rescue division,\u201d Gant said. \u201cHe told me a tornado had hit London and Somerset and that they were sending everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
OFD has 30 personnel on its Special Operations team. Gant quickly began organizing a deployment group, and by 3:30 a.m., they were on the road. The team arrived in London around 9 a.m. and were paired with other regional teams to conduct detailed secondary searches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we pulled into town, it didn\u2019t look that bad,\u201d Gant said. \u201cBut then we passed a neighborhood near the airport that was just obliterated. That\u2019s the thing with tornadoes \u2014 you\u2019ll see two houses untouched and a third one just gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s primary assignment was to perform secondary searches, a detailed sweep following the initial hasty and primary searches done by crews earlier in the day. These operations ensure that no one is missed in the aftermath of the storm.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s mission marked the third tornado deployment for OFD in recent years. The department responded to Mayfield\u2019s candle factory collapse, sent personnel to assist in Bowling Green, and participated in rescue efforts in Dawson Springs following previous storms.<\/p>\n
Gant credited state legislation passed in 2024 for improving Kentucky\u2019s disaster response structure. The bill led to the development of Kentucky Task Force One, a statewide urban search and rescue (USAR) team. Until that system is fully operational, the state has leaned on local special operations teams like OFD\u2019s to coordinate response efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team is made up of people trained in all aspects of technical rescue,\u201d Gant said. \u201cThese are low-frequency, high-skill operations, and our guys are always ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
OFD\u2019s specialized capabilities have made them a critical asset in mutual aid situations throughout the region. The department has responded to rescue calls in Hopkinsville, Madisonville, Henderson, and even during last summer\u2019s search for two lost canoeists.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do this because we want to help our neighbors,\u201d Gant said. \u201cBut there will come a day when we\u2019ll need help too. That\u2019s why building these relationships across the state matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the technical operations are essential, Gant said it\u2019s often the human stories that stick with his team the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne mom told us she was in the basement holding her kids, on the phone with her mother, who was working a shift at the hospital, when the tornado hit,\u201d Gant said. \u201cIt ripped the second floor off the house and took all the outer walls \u2014 but they survived.\u201d<\/p>\n
He praised the department\u2019s members for their professionalism and the City of Owensboro for its continued investment in specialized training and equipment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just grateful to be able to help,\u201d Gant said. \u201cWe hope we never need these skills here at home, but if we do, we\u2019ll be ready \u2014 and so will the friends we\u2019ve helped along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ten members of the Owensboro Fire Department\u2019s Technical Rescue Team were deployed early Friday morning to assist with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,2774,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-113718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-headline","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114533219966220719","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}