Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services Commissioner Claudio Norita on Friday deployed six firefighters to Rota to augment the island\u2019s emergency response team during Tropical Storm Chan-Hom\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n
DFEMS spokesman Derek Gersonde said the deployment of six firefighters from Saipan\u2019s Search and Rescue Unit was in coordination with the CNMI Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.<\/p>\n
Gersonde said the six firefighters will augment DFEMS Rota\u2019s emergency medical technician and firefighters in anticipation of Chan-Hom\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur firefighters are expected to remain on Rota until Chan-Hom is no longer a threat to Rota and the Marianas,\u201d Gersonde said.<\/p>\n
As of 5pm, the U.S. National Weather Service said packing maximum winds at 50 miles per hour, Tropical Storm Chan-Hom was passing over Rota.<\/p>\n
Last May, DFEMS Commissioner Norita also deployed six firefighters to Rota to augment the island\u2019s understaffed DFEMS during the preparedness operation over Typhoon Dolphin\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n
Rota has only five firefighters.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the Department of Public Safety also closed the Grotto diving spot due to typhoon condition III. It remained closed until yesterday.<\/p>\n
DPS Boating Safety Section commander Sgt. Thomas Blas said strong winds and rough waters are present in Grotto, making the conditions unsafe for any swimmers or divers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services Commissioner Claudio Norita on Friday deployed six firefighters…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4233,4234,5884,4566],"class_list":["post-205920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-derek-gersonde","tag-dfems","tag-thomas-blas","tag-typhoon-dolphin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}