A quick-acting Howard County fire captain who found himself in North Carolina during a tornado did what he was trained to do: Grab a sledgehammer and pry bar and start searching for people trapped under heavy wreckage.
On assignment at a heavy vehicle rescue course in Sanford, N.C., last month, Capt. Michael Sharpe, 32, found himself at a flattened Lowe's Home Improvement store after a twister ripped through the town. It was a Saturday, and it was possible that customers or workers could be found under the a mound of collapsed steel, roofing members and cinderblock walls.
Earlier, he had been attending a class with other rescue professionals, including five members of a Montgomery County unit. They stayed inside as the tornado passed, then emerged and saw the streets filled with emergency vehicles. A few blocks away, the tornado had made a direct hit on the Lowe's.
The front wall nearest the cash register aisles collapsed inward and took the roof with it; Sharpe said he feared that customers might be trapped as they scrambled to exit. Trained as a structure collapse technician, he went to work after receiving permission from local authorities.
"We have these skills and training and wanted to help. We had no search cameras, but we found sledgehammers and pry bars at the store and started using them," said Sharpe, who lives in Sykesville.
"The main entrance was our highest priority. The aisles were deep in debris. I was afraid that people would be knocked unconscious by merchandise. The force of the tornado had blown heavy objects like cans of paint and toolboxes projectile-style."
Sharpe said he called in a number of sales vendors who had brought specialized lifting tools and saws to the training seminar and told them to start work. For about two hours before the state search-and-rescue team arrived, his team of about a dozen men searched for anyone who might not have left the store. At the end of the day, both groups verified that everyone was safe and that quick-acting staff had hustled customers to safety.
"I'm grateful that one of our firefighters was there to lend a hand," said Howard Fire Chief William Goddard.
Sharpe, a Howard County native, is from a family of emergency professionals. His father is a deputy chief of operations with the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue, and his brother is in the county Police Department. Sharpe belongs to a team of 140 members in seven jurisdictions who participate regionally with the Baltimore Urban Search and Rescue group. Most large cities have such teams, he said.
He said they regularly train for worst-case scenarios: an overturned bus on Interstate 95 or a wrecked passenger rail car. They study hazardous materials situations and hold training sessions to deal with a spill or leak. They learn to run special equipment and sharpen their skills in "incident management techniques."
"We come in when there is a situation that's outside the norm of the fire department or the emergency service community," Sharpe said. "It's situations like the worker who gets his arm caught in a conveyor belt. We work in confined spaces, around hazardous materials and in excavation accidents. We even simulated the collapse of the Fort McHenry Tunnel."
Sharpe said he'll use his experience in North Carolina as a lesson in future training scenarios.
"What we do is work in situations that are very high-risk but are also low in frequency," Sharpe said. "Some of this stuff is so bad you can't even dream it could happen. It may not happen often, but you have to be ready when it does. You have to have the training and the tools."