10/10/2026
We wanted to take a minute and thank everyone that was involved in the search this past week!
When the search and rescue team is activated, volunteers from all the departments in the county come together to search night and day. Without that manpower, we wouldn’t be effective in covering large areas quickly - often in rough terrain and less than ideal weather.
We want to thank strong agency partnerships, including Tioga County Sheriff’s Office and New York State Police.
We are very thankful for Broome County Emergency Services, who sent assistant Fire Coordinators. Those coordinators provided much needed manpower relief- allowing our crews to get some rest before rotating back in; as well as other mutual aid and resources. We couldn’t do multi-day operations without assistance from other counties.
There is a lot of logistics that go into any operation - especially multi-day, large scale operations. We want to make sure we give a big thank you to the Southern Tier Horseman’s, Catholic Charities, Cheryl Elliston, Wendy Lance, Chrissy Rogers, The Shed, and the Dandy for all of the food, water, and other supplies that were donated. And last but not least, we want to thank Mario’s Pizzeria of Owego, who time and time again donate items to help keep the volunteers taken care of and go out of their way to support the first responders across the county.
We apologize if we missed anyone. Tioga County is so lucky to have such great First Responders who drop anything at a moments notice to give their time to help others. Thank you!
