Making the Difference:  MHFIRE...
Seven members of MHFire are members of Missouri Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Task Force 1 based at Boone County Fire Protection District in Columbia, MO.  At approximately 1100 hours on September 11, six of those members were activated for deployment to New York City as part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s urban search and rescue plan.  Within two and a half hours, they were on their way to Columbia to meet the rest of the task force and pick up equipment.  The task force then left for Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Noster, MO for departure to New York aboard three C-130s.  They arrived at Maguire Air Force Base in New Jersey at approximately 0200 hours on September 12.  After a few hours sleep, they were transferred by bus to the Jacob Javits Convention Center which would become the base of operations for the USAR teams deployed to New York (Missouri Task Force 1, California Task Force 1, California Task Force 6, California Task Force 7, California Task Force 8, Indiana Task Force 1, Ohio Task Force 1, and Pennsylvania Task Force 1).

Missouri Task Force 1 (MO-TF1) was split into a day shift and a night shift based on 12-hour rotations (which quickly became 14-18 hours shifts).  Both shifts worked in the area of the Winter Garden/North Bridge collapse adjacent to the Customs House at #6 World Trade Center and at the Southeast Plaza Commodities Exchange building at #4 World Trade Center.  Work was concentrated on removing structural members and debris in order to perform void searches.  MO-TF1 members worked side by side with members of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) and the other USAR teams.  Missouri Task Force 1 was demobilized on Thursday, September 20 and returned home on Friday, September 21 to a huge welcome home ceremony at Boone County Fire Protection District Headquarters.