Firefighters from SC work for 14 hours uninterruptedly and rescue families from roofs, trees and 800 people sheltering in a school

On the morning of this Monday, the 6th, the Santa Catarina Military Fire Department (CBMSC) will rotate the Task Force (FT) teams that are working in support of the Gauchos. The surrender, as this exchange of teams is called, will take place at 10 am at the corporation’s headquarters in Araranguá.

“We were the first state to send help to our brothers from Rio Grande do Sul and this Monday, with the rotation of teams, Santa Catarina becomes the largest team of military firefighters working in support of Rio Grande do Sul”, says governor Jorginho Mello .

The 32 firefighters who have been working in Rio Grande do Sul since last Wednesday, the 1st, return to Santa Catarina to be replaced by military firefighters from the FT teams of the Battalions of Florianópolis, Curitibanos, Blumenau, Criciúma, Itajaí, Tubarão, Canoinhas , São José and Balneário Camboriú.

In this second stage of the work, Santa Catarina is sending 39 specialized military firefighters for this type of incident, totaling 9 FT cells, in addition to the drone team and the new operation command. Among the other resources used are 10 4×4 vehicles, 17 boats, 11 outboard motors, drones and equipment for rescue in landslides.

“Our teams have been working around the clock in Lajeado, Santa Cruz do Sul and more recently, in the Greater Porto Alegre region since the first day of May. This rotation is necessary and fundamental for the firefighters to continue operating at full strength”, states the Deputy Commander-General of the CBMSC, Colonel Jefferson de Souza.

More than 1500 people and 200 animals were rescued

Displaced to work in the Greater Porto Alegre region on Saturday, the 4th, the CBMSC teams received an emergency call during the trip regarding 100 children who were stranded on the second floor of a school. Upon arrival, around 7pm, they promptly geared up and began the service.

Upon arriving at the location of the request for help, it was confirmed that it was a space that was being used by families who were already homeless. There were 800 people needing to be relocated to safe locations. 14 hours of uninterrupted work were recorded to rescue people in this location alone. It is a large region, with around 30 thousand people, which has historically never been affected by floods of this magnitude. In total, 1,555 people and 200 animals were rescued alive in the Guaíba region.

Operations in the Lajeado and Santa Cruz do Sul region

During operations in the Lajeado and Santa Cruz do Sul region, the seven CBMSC Task Force teams saved more than 600 lives, including people and animals. Most of the work, due to the significant rise in water levels in the neighboring state, was related to rescuing people who were stranded in their homes, on roofs and even clinging to trees. In addition, he rescued 3 victims who unfortunately were already dead, two of them in landslides and one in a residence covered by water.

Among the rescues that most moved the teams were that of a man who had been clinging to a tree in Cruzeiro do Sul for 4 days. He reported to the Santa Catarina firefighters that he could not be seen by the aircraft and that when he heard our teams blowing whistles, he waved and At that moment, he had the rescue he needed so much. Another impactful experience was the rescue of a family of 9 people, also in Cruzeiro do Sul, who were rescued by civilians, but the boat capsized and they had to spend the night clinging to a tree in the hope of being rescued. Once again, when passing with the boat blowing its whistle, the Santa Catarina firefighters were able to verify that there were people in that location and carried out the rescue successfully.