BLACKSBURG, Va. – The Virginia Tech Rescue Squad is working to get back on its feet after sustaining severe water damage at its station on campus a couple weeks ago, and the Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad is helping.
Early Thanksgiving morning, members of the Virginia Tech Rescue Squad had a rude awakening. A pipe above their bunk room burst. It flooded the entire station with 2Â inches of water and left them without a place to call home, until the Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad stepped in.
"Unfortunately, we're going to have to replace almost everything that was in the bunk room, from mattresses to folk's personal gear that was in there," Virginia Tech Rescue Chief Michael Gearey said.
While Gearey waits for his home base to dry out, he's setting up shop just down the road.
"As soon as we called them on Thanksgiving morning, it was, 'How can we help?'" Gearey said.
For the past two weeks, Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Chief David English has opened up his station to the Hokies, letting them run calls, sleep and train there.
"We told them they were more than welcome here," English said.
Relocating just a few miles away has come with its share of complications.
"Our response times are a little bit longer," Gearey said.
Gearey said the pros outweigh the cons, though, as Virginia Tech students early in their careers get to learn from seasoned first responders.
"Being over here has been an incredible blessing for our agency," Gearey said.
"Chief Gearey's pretty humble and saying they learn a lot from us. We learn a lot from them, too," English said.
The unfortunate situation has created an unexpected bond that's ultimately making first responders stronger together.
"Yeah, the truck that shows up to help you might say Virginia Tech on it, it might say Blacksburg, it might say Christiansburg or Long Shop, but it's all one team," English said.
"It’s something that we'll never be able to repay," Gearey said.
Clean-up efforts are still underway, but Gearey said they hope to be back home in the next couple weeks.