Ohio firefighters in place to offer aid after Hurricane Milton

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Several current and former members of the Columbus Division of Fire are currently in Florida with Ohio Task Force 1 (OH-TF1), ready to help once Hurricane Milton hits.

“It’s truly unbelievable the power of mother nature unless you see it first hand," said Doug Hotchkiss, a Columbus fire lieutenant and heavy rigging specialist with the task force, an urban search and rescue team.

“We’re here for natural disasters and we’ll help out any way we can, we train on all kinds of different situations, so we’re proud to be here, we’re proud to represent the state of Ohio," Hotchkiss said. 

Given the expected storm surge with Hurricane Milton, Hotchkiss said his main role will likely be with water rescues. The task force first got to Florida two weeks ago for Hurricane Helene, helping in the area just north of Tampa Bay, then moving on to western North Carolina.

"We worked in numerous areas around North Carolina and it's very hard to just verbally explain the amount of damage and flooding," Hotchkiss said. 

In Florida, Hurricane Milton will likely have Hotchkiss and his team working in communities which were hit hard by Hurricane Helene. He said the drive to help others keeps them going.

"It's just difficult to put into words the amount of damage you see and if you could see it first hand, you would want to be there helping as many people as you could possibly help," he said. “I can't imagine what these people go through afterwards, to picture your home having water come up to the roof line and everything you own is wet, destroyed, damaged, your home is damaged, and then to do it again two weeks later, it's got to be tough.”

This is Hotchkiss' seventh trip like this. He said it's the first time he's responded to two separate storms on the same deployment.

There are also at least two retired Columbus fire department members and two Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center doctors on the 82-person task force.