Local Firefighters Recount Rescue from Haiti Rubble

By Desiree Parker Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Local fire fighters who are part of a regional rescue task force returned this weekend from Haiti, where they managed to help pull three survivors from the rubble.

Two James City County firefighters and three members of York County’s fire and life safety department deployed on January 15 as part of Virginia Task Force 2, a rescue organization established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The activated heavy rescue team was comprised of 81 folks not just from the Triangle but also from Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Newport News and the Navy Regional Mid-Atlantic Fire departments. The group included firefighters as well as physicians, structural engineers, veterinarians and dog handlers.

James City County Firefighter Ron Quesenberry sent out an email when he returned. “Our mission was a successful one,” he wrote, because the group managed to help rescue three people. One was Jens Kristensen, the senior humanitarian officer with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti. He was trapped beneath 15 feet of rubble for five days. The other two were children: 7-year-old Kiki and his 11-year-old sister, Sabrinia. kids

“There’s not a word in the English language to describe how it feels,” Quesenberry told WYDaily. “It’s God’s will – we were doing our jobs, and we were in the right place at the right time. It’s so gratifying to be able to do something to help.”

James City County firefighter and paramedic Richard Svadeba, who has been on the task force for about 10 years, told WYDaily it was the first time the group had been overseas, though they’ve helped with disaster relief after Hurricane Katrina and also in Florida in the aftermath of another bad storm.

The team worked in smaller groups in different areas of Port-au-Prince for 12 to 16 hours a day to help find survivors, and they lived on military rations and water they’d brought along with them.

Svadeba was working in another area close by when members of the team pulled Kristensen out of the rubble. Trained dogs alerted the team someone was alive in one area, so workers tunneled through the collapsed building, often with their hands, to get to him. “They called out to him, and when they reached him they passed him some water,” Svadeba says. “He was trapped in a desk-sized area – it was pretty amazing he made it.”

“One of the most exciting moments of the entire mission was when Jens Kristensen came walking into our base camp of operations the night before we left to come home,” wrote Quesenberry, who was at the site when Kristensen was pulled from the building. “It was a sight for sore eyes, just seeing him walk into our camp, when the last time we had seen him we were loading him into an awaiting ambulance after digging him out of the rumble. He looked so good and just wanted to come by before we left, to say thank you to each of us for saving his life and never giving up. Wow, what a moment to experience!”

Neither Quesenberry nor Svadeba were part of the smaller group who were at the site where the two children were rescued.

Svadeba says he had some idea of what to expect when he got to Haiti, “but when we actually got there, it’s totally different. The devastation was incredible. It really makes you appreciate what we have here.”

Quesenberry agrees that it was a shock to see what a state Port-au-Prince was in, but it’s why he got involved with the task force and why he became a firefighter. “I’ve had 28 years with the fire department and I’d never trade it for another job,” he tells WYDaily. “It’s very rewarding to be a part of saving someone’s life.”

According to Captain Paul Long, the York County firefighters are also home safe and sound, and they’ll be speaking with the press later in the week. The York County team members are Senior Firefighter Charles Pinello, Lt. Richard Burgess and Lt. Robert Moore.