GOUVERNEUR – The Gouverneur Fire Department was contacted by St. Lawrence County Director of Emergency Services, Marty Hasset, asking for aid and assistance to help out with storm damage from Tropical Storm Irene in Clinton County Sunday night.

The department's assignment was to respond to the Clinton County Emergency Services Building in Plattsburgh at 7 a.m. Monday morning with further deployment to be announced.

The department loaded two vehicles R-75, which is a 2011 Dodge 4x4 pick-up, R-7, which is an incident command vehicle, and a 16-foot utility trailer with ATV-11, a Polaris Ranger, loaded with pumps, generators, portable lighting, chainsaws and other fire fighting equipment fully equipped for any task to be encountered.

Ten members of the department committed themselves for a 24 hour tour of deployment.

Members involved were: Chief Steven Young and firefighters Darren Fairbanks, Matt McDougall, Cory Hall, Nick Chenault, Andrew Cowles, Joe Lacks, Tim Smoot, Dan Isereau and Joey Pritty.

The department was assigned to the hamlet of Ausable Forks to assist the Ausable Forks Fire Department.

The department then assisted the residents of the hamlet with an array of pump details as their community substained flash flooding Sunday night which caused the center of the hamlet to have four feet of water in it.

"As chief of the Gouverneur Fire Department, I was more then willing to provide any and all assistance to any community in the time of need during a tragic incident. This is what we do and we enjoy helping others in the time of need," said Young. "I commend my members on a job well done and our thoughts and prayers are with all who suffered through this devastating storm."