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'Fort Apache' welcomes Vermont Guard's help
September 11, 2005
By BRENDAN McKENNA Staff Writer
HARVEY, La. — The men of Harvey Volunteer Fire Company No. 2 have seen a lot in the last two weeks.
Their fire station, across the street from Helen Cox High School where the Vermont National Guard is encamped, was flooded, a few rode out the hurricane in the West Jefferson Medical Center, and they've had to use chain saws and a liberated backhoe to clear the streets.
But the worst aftereffect of Hurricane Katrina, the one which led them to name their compound ort Apache, and led Assistant Chief Tommy Berggren to shave his head in a Mohawk, was the threat of looting.
Just a day after three-foot-high flood waters forced the three firefighters who rode out the storm to abandon their post and take shelter in the hospital, bands of armed men started driving past the station, waving guns in the air and honking horns."It was kind of an escalation to the looting problem," Berggren said. "A lot of major businesses in the area had already been ravaged and pillaged."
He added, "I got a phone call from the fire coordinator for the parish at the emergency command center and he said, 'Chief, I don't know how to tell you, but we're getting reports of other firehouses overrun and looted. The sheriffs don't have the manpower to protect you."
Berggren, a bulky man with a mustache under his now-shaved head and tattoos covering almost all of his back, said that conversation forced him to confront what he and his men would do if they were faced with that situation.
To Berggren, it was a matter of having to draw a line somewhere in the midst of all the craziness around them.
"I thought I signed on to do a job, not just when it's convenient," Berggren said. "Now the chips are down and the cream has to rise to the top."
He added, "100 percent of my guys said, 'We didn't just sign on for the good times'."
Armed with instructions to do "whatever was necessary" to protect their station and respond to emergencies, about 10 men of the company went home, collected their personal weapons — pistols and shotguns — and set about trying to restore order.
"Nobody was coming; there was no help in sight," Berggren said. "My brother is a policeman … and when I told him we were overrun he said people were quitting and 'I hate to tall you, but you're on your own.'"
He added, "Guys who'll shoot at the police won't even think twice about shooting at a fire truck."
So Berggren decided the men needed a morale boost.
"Fort Apache started as a pride thing," he said. "This is where we're making a stop, making our stand. It was between the Alamo and Fort Apache, and nobody's from Texas and the Alamo has kind of negative connotations."
So as soon as they were able, Berggren's men went out on the streets of Harvey, cutting branches and trees out of the roads to make sure their trucks could get through.
They were also called to the Oakwood Mall, where looters started a fire hoping to burn down a sheriff's substation housed in the building.
All the while, the firefighters were armed, with one man on each team standing security with a shotgun while the others worked.
"The first couple of days it was every man for himself," Berggren said. "FEMA was not here, the (American) Red Cross was not here. They were telling every fire district that if they can maintain, maintain. If not, we understand."
He added, "It was a small battle we fought, but I think we won. I think it meant something to the community."
Blake Hunter, 21, of Marrero, La., was one of the first firefighters to return to the station Tuesday.
"There was a lot of destruction, a lot of wind damage," he said. "I've never seen anything like this. I've seen a lot of tropical storms and hurricanes but never anything like this. We were all kind of just in awe of the damage."
He said establishing Fort Apache on the fire station — in red spray paint on the garage bay doors as well as a sign on the roof — helped pull the group together.
"All of the guys here, we all got along great already, but it was more of a feeling like being at hunting camp," he said.
Capt. Gus Tierney agreed. He also returned after a few days and has spent nearly all of the last two weeks at the station.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It looked like a nuclear bomb went off. Total devastation like something you'd see in the movies," he said. "We did what we had to do to survive and help the citizens and protect them."
"I was in the military for eight years," he said. "So when everybody was working, I was standing guard, watching their backs with a shotgun."
Tierney said the firefighters always traveled in pairs with at least a pistol by their sides the first few days. Though things have relaxed a week and a half later, about a third of the firefighters still have guns strapped to their belts.
"I saw them in the cars with guns, I saw the looting in neighborhood stores," Tierney said. "It was not for survival. It was personal gain. There's no food and water in an audio store."
"We never actually had any problems here with anybody. It could have been because we were visible," he said. "But we did turn out all the nights at light so we didn't stick out."
So Tierney was understandably grateful when the Vermont Guardsmen arrived and set up a base across the street.
"I was very happy when you guys showed up with the rest of the guns," he said.
He made contact with the Vermonters by walking over bearing an American flag for the school flagpole, a gesture that Lt. Richard LaBarre said was very welcome.
"It means a lot," LaBarre said. "It really does. I don't know how to describe it, but it means a lot."
"It was definitely like the wild west for them," he said. "I'm pretty impressed that they actually stuck with their mission, just to show the neighbors that the fire department is here to stay."
The fire department's determination also provides a symbol of hope for the community, LaBarre said.
"It's something that helps people think and feel like life will carry on," he said. "Things will eventually return to normal."
He added that the firefighters have also been very helpful to the guards in both practical and intangible ways, giving them directions and information about various neighborhoods.
"I saw them on the news before we left," LaBarre said. "It was kind of neat to actually see something on the news. Some of the guys when they got down here didn't see anything that they saw, like the flooding, until that part of what we saw on the news in Vermont."
"It reinforces that we truly are in the New Orleans area on the same mission that everybody else is," he said.
Although things have calmed down significantly with the presence of the Guardsmen, Berggren said there's still a lot of work left to do.
"I'm afraid that when they start turning the power back on we'll get a lot of fires," he said. "And the hospital came yesterday to give us tetanus and hepatitis shots and now I've been told we're going to get the next set of shots for malaria and cholera.
"I never dreamed in my wildest dreams I'd have to get malaria shots," he said.
Berggren added that the people who have been taking care of the families of the firefighters who evacuated are owed a debt of gratitude he said he could never repay.
"As long as we know they're being taken care of, we can function," he said. "It really made it a lot more bearable knowing that people are out there taking care of their families."
The assistant chief said at this stage his biggest concern is whether his community will have the will to rebuild after the disaster.
"It would be easy to say forget it, because it will take such an effort to get back even remotely like normal living conditions," he said. "I just hope enough people will stay to make the effort."
"I don't want to see the community take a step back because the people aren't interested," he said.
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050911/NEWS/509110399/1002/NEWS01
September 11, 2005
By BRENDAN McKENNA Staff Writer
HARVEY, La. — The men of Harvey Volunteer Fire Company No. 2 have seen a lot in the last two weeks.
Their fire station, across the street from Helen Cox High School where the Vermont National Guard is encamped, was flooded, a few rode out the hurricane in the West Jefferson Medical Center, and they've had to use chain saws and a liberated backhoe to clear the streets.
But the worst aftereffect of Hurricane Katrina, the one which led them to name their compound ort Apache, and led Assistant Chief Tommy Berggren to shave his head in a Mohawk, was the threat of looting.
Just a day after three-foot-high flood waters forced the three firefighters who rode out the storm to abandon their post and take shelter in the hospital, bands of armed men started driving past the station, waving guns in the air and honking horns."It was kind of an escalation to the looting problem," Berggren said. "A lot of major businesses in the area had already been ravaged and pillaged."
He added, "I got a phone call from the fire coordinator for the parish at the emergency command center and he said, 'Chief, I don't know how to tell you, but we're getting reports of other firehouses overrun and looted. The sheriffs don't have the manpower to protect you."
Berggren, a bulky man with a mustache under his now-shaved head and tattoos covering almost all of his back, said that conversation forced him to confront what he and his men would do if they were faced with that situation.
To Berggren, it was a matter of having to draw a line somewhere in the midst of all the craziness around them.
"I thought I signed on to do a job, not just when it's convenient," Berggren said. "Now the chips are down and the cream has to rise to the top."
He added, "100 percent of my guys said, 'We didn't just sign on for the good times'."
Armed with instructions to do "whatever was necessary" to protect their station and respond to emergencies, about 10 men of the company went home, collected their personal weapons — pistols and shotguns — and set about trying to restore order.
"Nobody was coming; there was no help in sight," Berggren said. "My brother is a policeman … and when I told him we were overrun he said people were quitting and 'I hate to tall you, but you're on your own.'"
He added, "Guys who'll shoot at the police won't even think twice about shooting at a fire truck."
So Berggren decided the men needed a morale boost.
"Fort Apache started as a pride thing," he said. "This is where we're making a stop, making our stand. It was between the Alamo and Fort Apache, and nobody's from Texas and the Alamo has kind of negative connotations."
So as soon as they were able, Berggren's men went out on the streets of Harvey, cutting branches and trees out of the roads to make sure their trucks could get through.
They were also called to the Oakwood Mall, where looters started a fire hoping to burn down a sheriff's substation housed in the building.
All the while, the firefighters were armed, with one man on each team standing security with a shotgun while the others worked.
"The first couple of days it was every man for himself," Berggren said. "FEMA was not here, the (American) Red Cross was not here. They were telling every fire district that if they can maintain, maintain. If not, we understand."
He added, "It was a small battle we fought, but I think we won. I think it meant something to the community."
Blake Hunter, 21, of Marrero, La., was one of the first firefighters to return to the station Tuesday.
"There was a lot of destruction, a lot of wind damage," he said. "I've never seen anything like this. I've seen a lot of tropical storms and hurricanes but never anything like this. We were all kind of just in awe of the damage."
He said establishing Fort Apache on the fire station — in red spray paint on the garage bay doors as well as a sign on the roof — helped pull the group together.
"All of the guys here, we all got along great already, but it was more of a feeling like being at hunting camp," he said.
Capt. Gus Tierney agreed. He also returned after a few days and has spent nearly all of the last two weeks at the station.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It looked like a nuclear bomb went off. Total devastation like something you'd see in the movies," he said. "We did what we had to do to survive and help the citizens and protect them."
"I was in the military for eight years," he said. "So when everybody was working, I was standing guard, watching their backs with a shotgun."
Tierney said the firefighters always traveled in pairs with at least a pistol by their sides the first few days. Though things have relaxed a week and a half later, about a third of the firefighters still have guns strapped to their belts.
"I saw them in the cars with guns, I saw the looting in neighborhood stores," Tierney said. "It was not for survival. It was personal gain. There's no food and water in an audio store."
"We never actually had any problems here with anybody. It could have been because we were visible," he said. "But we did turn out all the nights at light so we didn't stick out."
So Tierney was understandably grateful when the Vermont Guardsmen arrived and set up a base across the street.
"I was very happy when you guys showed up with the rest of the guns," he said.
He made contact with the Vermonters by walking over bearing an American flag for the school flagpole, a gesture that Lt. Richard LaBarre said was very welcome.
"It means a lot," LaBarre said. "It really does. I don't know how to describe it, but it means a lot."
"It was definitely like the wild west for them," he said. "I'm pretty impressed that they actually stuck with their mission, just to show the neighbors that the fire department is here to stay."
The fire department's determination also provides a symbol of hope for the community, LaBarre said.
"It's something that helps people think and feel like life will carry on," he said. "Things will eventually return to normal."
He added that the firefighters have also been very helpful to the guards in both practical and intangible ways, giving them directions and information about various neighborhoods.
"I saw them on the news before we left," LaBarre said. "It was kind of neat to actually see something on the news. Some of the guys when they got down here didn't see anything that they saw, like the flooding, until that part of what we saw on the news in Vermont."
"It reinforces that we truly are in the New Orleans area on the same mission that everybody else is," he said.
Although things have calmed down significantly with the presence of the Guardsmen, Berggren said there's still a lot of work left to do.
"I'm afraid that when they start turning the power back on we'll get a lot of fires," he said. "And the hospital came yesterday to give us tetanus and hepatitis shots and now I've been told we're going to get the next set of shots for malaria and cholera.
"I never dreamed in my wildest dreams I'd have to get malaria shots," he said.
Berggren added that the people who have been taking care of the families of the firefighters who evacuated are owed a debt of gratitude he said he could never repay.
"As long as we know they're being taken care of, we can function," he said. "It really made it a lot more bearable knowing that people are out there taking care of their families."
The assistant chief said at this stage his biggest concern is whether his community will have the will to rebuild after the disaster.
"It would be easy to say forget it, because it will take such an effort to get back even remotely like normal living conditions," he said. "I just hope enough people will stay to make the effort."
"I don't want to see the community take a step back because the people aren't interested," he said.
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050911/NEWS/509110399/1002/NEWS01