Columbia-Richland Fire Department heads to Pawley’s Island for five-day deployment

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO)– Fifteen Columbia fire personnel are on their way to Pawleys Island to help assist in search and rescue missions. They say they are ready to repay the debt they have owed for more than three years.

“Columbia dealt with the floods in 2015, and they know how to give back to others. And that’s really what they’re going to do,” Daniel McManus said, Division Chief of Special Operations. 

The crew members are bringing three swift-water boats, two ATVs, a collapsed rescue truck and additional supplies. Columbia-Richland Fire Department is equipped to help our neighbors along the Pee Dee River.   

“The guys going today have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours training,” McManus said. 

McManus says the state has received tons of help from FEMA, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia when Florence first hit South Carolina, but that was just the beginning of the state’s problems.

“But now it’s a long term effort. The water’s still flowing. It’s coming it’s way from North Carolina, working its way through South Carolina and out to the coast,” McManus said. 

The crews will be in Pawleys Island for five days with teams from Charleston. Greenville and Hilton Head teams have been out there for eight days and need to be switched out.

“If everybody gives a little, whatever that little is, whether it’s one or two firemen or 15 firemen, it can help,” McManus said. 

The fire department is standing by for additional requests from areas impacted by the flooding, but for right now, their only mission is providing some relief to those in Pawleys Island.