CALCUTTA, Ohio — When disaster strikes, they don’t hesitate — that’s just who they are.
Four members of the Calcutta Volunteer Fire Department — Chief David McCoy, Assistant Chief Shayne Hamilton, Lt. Randy Schneider and Firefighter Wesley Baxter —recently traveled to Kerrville, Texas to assist in search and rescue efforts following deadly flash flooding.
The team, alongside K9 Solace, worked from sun-up to sundown for five straight days.
Cutting through debris, climbing unstable piles of rubble, and combing through flood-damaged terrain, the group worked to bring closure to families in central Texas.
“That’s the perspective I think all four of us went down. It’s like we couldn’t fathom not knowing where your loved one was knowing that he or she could’ve been swept away,” McCoy said.
Mccoy who has been a part of the department since 1979, was on a family vacation in Florida when the call came in. By the next morning, he was on a flight home, packing up gear to head south and drive more than 25 hours with the crew.
“I landed at 10:15. I took our vehicle, which we had parked there and drove it home, and I was able to get everything packed. We pushed off probably 4 1/2 hours later,” McCoy said.
Once in Kerrville, the crew joined a 15-person response team, tasked with covering roughly 3 miles of flood-damaged land.
Some piles of debris towered 25 feet high, but wearing heavy gear in 90-degree heat, the men pushed through exhaustion and were fueled by purpose.
“It’s like walking through the woods, but all the trees are down and you’re trying to go miles and miles on a hike, but you have to go up and down up and down under piles over piles of debris and trash and trees,” Baxter said. “It’s physically exhausting and mentally as well, knowing what you might find.”
The danger was real — each step was a risk.
“Being down there along the shoreline along the debris is extremely dangerous,” Hamilton said. “You don’t know what you’re walking on. You don’t know what you’re exposing yourself too. You have debris upwards of 40 feet high up in the trees, and at any minute, that stuff can fall. You’re on top of mounds of debris trying to dig through and you could’ve fell through. It’s pretty dangerous stuff.”
The group spent their time searching 3 miles of the river, digging through fallen trees, sand mounds and twisted wreckage.
“Walking around down there on the sand mounds and not knowing whether or not somebody is underneath, you — I had one time I was digging in the sand and I kept thinking of myself, ‘What if they’re just an inch deeper?’ ” Hamilton said.
Despite the risks, there was pride in knowing they were able to help.
“It means everything to me,” Hamilton said. “Especially when people there are like, ‘oh my gosh, you’re from Ohio,’ and it’s just a shock to them, and it brings pride to me that we’re here from Ohio that we’ve come so far just to help them.”
“It was totally worth it. Every mile was worth it. “
The team’s secret? A four-legged partner named Solace.
She’s trained in cadaver detection, tracking and area searches. She’s also capable of identifying human scent, even in the most challenging conditions.
“They could be 20-to-25 feet thick and some of them could be as long as 30-to-40 to 50 feet or more and when you get that large of a pile, the odor that she would pick up if you catch a right on the side, she could pick up something as far as the wind will carry the sun out,” McCoy said.
Solace was essential for confirming whether what rescuers smelled was a human or an animal, guiding the team’s search efforts with precision.
Her presence didn’t just help with logistics. She brought peace.
“She’s our best team member,” Baxter said. “She made everyone happy down there and she gave people peace. The citizens and the search and rescue teams. “
Baxter, now on his third out-of-state deployment, says his faith carries him through the pain and fatigue.
“Seeing a lot of crosses along the river that was hard to see,” he said. “A lot of people came around with expressions on their face that were hard, and they were pretty sad. You don’t see that every day.”
Schneider coordinated logistics for the trip, reaching out to Incident Command and gathering mission details, making it his eighth out of state search and rescue trip.
“It’s always been instilled in me from my parents to get back and help others,” he said. “I know it’s like a fairytale; parents tell you to do this, but I truly believe in service to the public. Helping people.”
All of them say that it was the Calcutta community that made it all possible. The trip was fully funded through public donations.
“The outpouring of support from our community. Everyone always says we want to thank a community is the police and fire, but it really goes above and beyond for our department because of these trips that we do. Without the community these trips aren’t possible,” Schneider said.
From flooded land in Texas back to small-town Ohio, these men carry the same mission: serve with heart, no matter how far the call takes them.
That’s what they do here and that’s what makes them this week’s Hannahs Heroes. If you would like to nominate someone, or a group, click here.
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