A group of Wisconsin firefighters returned home from Houston Thursday. They traveled south to help fellow members of their firefighter fraternity.
Flooding from Hurricane Harvey left the area around Houston devastated including the homes of first responders who have been working around the clock to help their community recover.
It's why Mukwonago Assistant Fire Chief Andy Wegner and dozens of others decided to take a trip to Texas to help
"If you look at this house, the garage and the house, the water was at up over the gutters by a foot. The house was full of water," explained Wegner during video he filmed in Spring, Texas on September 11, 2017.
Wegner and a team of 25 firefighters volunteer spent this past week working as a cleanup crew for their comrades.
"We went down to Texas and helped firefighters from Houston fire department and outlying areas and we took their homes that were destroyed from the floods and we went and gutted their homes," said Wegner.
Some of the damaged homes had not been touched until they arrived because those firefighters were still out trying to help others.
Arrving home after a long week of work, the Wisconsin crew was greeted by fellow emergency responders and family, proud of their service.
"You know that they are building bonds down there that are going to be for forever," said Andy's wife Kerry Wegner.
There is still a lot more work left to do. But in the end, the group was able to clean out 10 homes.
"I think it was extra special knowing we were going to help brothers and sisters of the fire service in another community," said Wegner.
