Their first task, after their initial briefing, was to walk with firefighters through the first of the three destroyed apartment buildings. He was joined by 15 other Go-Team members. Friday evening and reported for duty about 7 p.m. In the immediate aftermath last Friday, the fire also triggered deployment of Montgomery County’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Go-Team volunteers, including our own Board member David Schwartzman.ĭavid has been training for about a year to work in disaster response with the CERT Go-Team, and the Fireside Park Apartments fire was his first response to a fire, and the third for the Go-Team in the past year.ĭavid received his activation text message at 6:20 p.m. CERT Deployment at Fireside Park Apartments The volunteer CERT team at Fireside Park Apartments, on February 2, included Board member David Schwartzman, third from right towards the back.Ī three-alarm fire on February 2 that displaced 33 of our neighboring families in the Fireside Park Apartments prompted an outpouring of concern and offers of donations from around New Mark Commons, as new homes are sought for them.
