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Firefighters with Miss. State Fire...

Firefighters with Miss. State Fire Academy help with Hurricane Ida recovery in Louisiana

By: Anne Summerhays - September 1, 2021

More firefighters from the MSFA are expected to be deployed to Louisiana in the next 24 hours. 

Fourteen local firefighters from the Mississippi State Fire Academy (MSFA), Madison Fire Department, and Gluckstadt Fire Department are on the way to Louisiana to aid in Hurricane Ida recovery efforts.

The team could be assigned tasks ranging from firefighting to rescue to medical calls, and will be escorted to Baton Rouge, Louisiana by the Mississippi Fire Marshal’s Office.

MSFA Instructor Matt Hinkle discussed how the team could be doing anything fire suppression related, standard medical calls, structural fire response, and water events.

“Our team is prepared to be sufficient for 72 hours without relying on anybody else so we really have that expectation, too,” stated Hinkle.

The MSFA team has taken MREs, water, N95 Masks, gloves, generators, and other supplies with them.

Though 14 Mississippi firefighters are on the way to Louisiana, more firefighters are expected to be deployed within the next 24 hours.

The Louisiana State Fire Marshal’s Office made the request for out-of-state assistance as around 991,000 customers in Louisiana are still without power according to PowerOutage.US.

On Sunday, FEMA announced that they had sent over 3.5 million meals, 2.5 million liters of water and 139,000 tarps, with millions more meals and water on order. They also shipped more than 185 generators to the affected areas. More than 3,600 FEMA employees were also sent to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. 

About the Author(s)
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Anne Summerhays

Anne Summerhays is a recent graduate of Millsaps College where she majored in Political Science, with minors in Sociology and American Studies. In 2021, she joined Y’all Politics as a Capitol Correspondent. Prior to making that move, she interned for a congressional office in Washington, D.C. and a multi-state government relations and public affairs firm in Jackson, Mississippi. While at Millsaps, Summerhays received a Legislative Fellowship with the Women’s Foundation of Mississippi where she worked with an active member of the Mississippi Legislature for the length of session. She has quickly established trust in the Capitol as a fair, honest, and hardworking young reporter. Her background in political science helps her cut through the noise to find and explain the truth. Email Anne: anne@magnoliatribune.com