{"id":348071,"date":"2026-06-05T14:42:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348071\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T14:42:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:42:56","slug":"u-s-navy-says-robotic-firefighting-equipment-used-in-garden-grove-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348071\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Navy says robotic firefighting equipment used in Garden Grove emergency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo By Gregg Smith\/U.S. Navy
\nFirefighter David Gyselbrecht from Naval Base San Diego conducts post-event checks on firefighting robot Johnny-5 at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach on Wednesday, May 27. Federal firefighters from NWS Seal Beach, Naval Base San Diego and Naval Base Coronado provided robotic support to civilian first responders during a major chemical incident at a civilian aerospace facility in Garden Grove.<\/p>\n

By Gregg Smith, Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach<\/p>\n

Federal Firefighters from Naval Base San Diego, Naval Base Coronado and nearby Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach provided critical robotic support to civilian first responders during a recent major chemical incident at a civilian industrial facility.<\/p>\n

The incident in Garden Grove, California over the Memorial Day weekend involved the evacuation of over 50,000 local residents after a chemical storage tank at a private aerospace company overheated and began venting toxic and highly flammable chemicals.<\/p>\n

Following requests for support from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Orange County Fire Authority, Navy Fire and Emergency Services personnel arrived May 23 with Johnny-5, a Thermite RS-1 firefighting robot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe robot\u2019s initial mission was to provide decontamination support for hazardous materials entry teams operating in the hot zone,\u201d said Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach Fire Chief Matt Rios, the robot division lead for the event. \u201cOnce we arrived, we ended up taking on more responsibilities as the situation developed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rios, along with robot team entry lead Assistant Fire Chief Anthony Glorioso from Naval Base Coronado and robot operator Firefighter David Gyselbrecht from Naval Base San Diego, had their work cut out for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe robot made entry on May 24 and remained downrange within the hot zone until the 27th,\u201d said Rios. \u201cWe were able to support our civilian partners with decontamination activities as well as reconnaissance, remote fire suppression and air sampling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe system employed LIDAR mapping technology to deliver real-time data to the incident command team, supporting operational decision making in coordination with both the EPA and the local fire agency,\u201d added Glorioso.<\/p>\n

The team departed May 27, following successful first responder efforts to neutralize the chemical threat and end community evacuation orders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis incident demonstrated the strength of regional and local partnerships and the importance of agencies coming together to support one another during high-risk operations,\u201d said Rios. \u201cThrough teamwork, shared resources, and coordinated response efforts, we were able to better protect our responders, our communities, and the public we serve every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo By Gregg Smith\/U.S. Navy Firefighter David Gyselbrecht from Naval Base San Diego conducts post-event checks on firefighting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-348071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}