On Monday July 17th, 7 members of Manoa Fire Company’s Swift Water Rescue Team were deployed with the DelCo Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Taskforce to Washington Crossing, Bucks County to assist in the search for the two missing children who were swept away during a flash flood event on July 15th.

The taskforce was made up of specially trained members from Manoa Fire Company, Upper Darby Fire Department, Aston Township Fire Department, Chester Bureau of Fire, Haverford Township Paramedics and the Delaware County Emergency Services 911. The taskforce members worked in conjunction with the Chester County US&R Taskforce and several Bucks county units. They were tasked with performing cursory land and water based searches of debris in the area affected by the flash floods.

Our Members on our Swift Water Team spend countless hours training in Swift Water Rescue Operations and Rescue Operations, in addition to their regular firefighting duties, for incidents such as this. Our thoughts, prayers, and deepest condolences go out to the families/loved ones, and to the first responders affected by this unthinkable tragedy.