Morgan’s Point Resort firefighters deploy to Houston to assist with flood relief efforts

MORGAN’S POINT RESORT, Texas (KWTX) - Central Texas fire departments are stepping in to help the Houston-area as the region continues to rebuild after violent storms. Morgan’s Point Resort sent two of their own to the area over the weekend.

A crew from that department has spent the past few days working 12 hour shifts from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Fire specialist Will Vaszocz and firefighter Nathen Watts are among around 50 first responders from across the state helping with the recovery efforts.

”I just like to help out and help people recover and make sure people are okay,” Will Vaszocz said. “It’s what we do as firemen.”

They got a call for help through the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System (TIFMAS), a program that uses local resources at a statewide level.

”Typically TIFMAS is wildfire missions,” Morgan’s Point Resort Fire & Rescue fire chief Taran Vaszocz said. “Back in March we had a crew go out to the Panhandle for the Smokehouse Creek Fire. “We had another crew go to Uvalde.”

As almost 200,000 Houston customers remain without power, the Morgan’s Point Resort crew is passing out bottled water and cutting down tree limbs.

”Without the power to cool homes, anybody who has any kind of health condition like elderly or very young people, they’re susceptible to getting ill,” chief Taran Vaszocz said. “So we’re staffing cooling centers, not necessarily our crews, but part of the TIFMAS outreach. We’re also giving them fresh water because there’s other parts of infrastructure that are down.”

The work they’re doing hasn’t gone unnoticed.

”It’s been positive, everybody’s been thankful,” Will Vaszocz said. “We’ve gotten some pictures taken and people have been hugging us, the response from the citizens of Houston has been positive.”

Morgan’s Point Resort fire specialist Will Vaszocz and firefighter Watts will be in Houston until June 2, at the latest.

”It just gives our folk more exposure to know what to do if we have an emergency of that scale here at home,” chief Taran Vaszocz said.

Thanks to TIFMAS, Morgan’s Point Resort Fire knows that if a local disaster were to strike, there would be other departments ready to step in and help them.