TEXAS COUNTY, Mo. (KY3) – There’s an organization in Texas County that acts as first responders for first responders.
The Texas County Emergency Response Team started as a neighborhood watch, of sorts, since emergency services in the large county can sometimes be an hour away.
But its biggest service is helping out firefighters when they are called to put out a fire.
The nonprofit provides cooling and medical services to firefighters, helping them take some time to relax, hydrate, and heal up.
“We feel that us being there is helping each one of these guys and gals go home,” said the team’s director Travis Maddox, “and that’s super important. I can’t tell you exactly if we’ve saved a firefighter’s life, but the idea is that during the fire, we give them a place to sit down and cool off. It lowers their heart rate, therefore reducing the chance of them later on having a heart attack or stroke.”
The services have been requested in neighboring counties, and this year’s fire season is just beginning.
This means the team is asking for your help to donate things like water, electrolyte drinks, towels, shirts and socks, protein snacks, and medical supplies.
“When we get the call from a fire department,” Maddox said, “we never wanna say, ‘Sorry, we can’t go. We don’t have anything.’ These are our heroes out there. These are volunteers. They’re leaving their families. They’re leaving jobs to go, and they’re not getting paid to do it. Our people aren’t getting paid, but these firefighters around here, none of them are getting paid, so we want to serve the community heroes.”
If you would like to donate, you’ll have to contact the team to set up a drop-off or pick-up time. You can do so by calling 417-318-0880 or emailing Tmaddox@texascountyert.org.
“It’s not just from a medical sense or even just from food and water,” said Maddox. “Our people are really taking care of them. They come in, and our people take their jackets off for them. They take their boots off for them. They make them sit down. They put cool rags on them. They put cold drinks in their hands. People can be a part of that. They may not be able to go out there with us and do these things, but they can make a contribution so that our volunteers can.”
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