His business was successful, but by 2007, Mr. Agoglia's goals changed, and he instead decided to use that money to buy more than a million dollars' worth of highly specialized equipment that he now uses to aid disaster victims throughout the country, free of charge.

Mr. Agoglia's contracting company originally had just cranes and wheel loaders and his job was to clean up after hurricanes such as Katrina.

"As a contractor, I would always come in one to two months later, because it would take that long to draw up contracts and everything," he said in an interview conducted last week while he was speaking on a cell phone while driving his car in Pennsylvania. "I would go to a hurricane site and look around, see the destruction and wonder what it was like for the people who were there when it actually hit."

One need he identified was to reopen roads.

"Sometimes when a tornado struck, it would take a large building and just put it right in the middle of a road," he said.

In May 2007, a tornado wiped out the town of Greensburg, Kans. Mr. Agoglia said his crew was nearby at the time, and he decided to show up as soon as the tornado struck to help open roads and provide whatever other assistance he could. All at no charge.

At the time, entry to the city was restricted, but Mr. Agoglia said that within 30 minutes of seeing his equipment, the National Guard and Kansas officials welcomed them into town.

"Greensburg was the first free one," he said. "And it was all on theory." At the time, he anticipated that he might help with the one or two major disasters that struck per year.

Instead, there were far more than two major disasters.

After Greensburg, in October 2007, Mr. Agolia's crew headed for the southern California wildfires, providing free assistance there as well. Two months later, he was off to help with flooding and mud slides in California, followed by widespread flooding in Oregon and Washington State, then ice storms in Oklahoma, and the recent floods in Indiana, Missouri, Iowa and other states along the Mississippi River -- all at no charge.

He and his crew, which includes only about five people, hadn't returned home until this weekend.

Mr. Agoglia's company, First Recovery Solutions, had two teams, one based in Knoxville, Tenn., and one on Sound Avenue in Riverhead. But he said that none of them have been at either site since May 2007.

"I never expected there to be so much widespread, epic damage," Mr. Agoglia said. "There were more tornadoes this year than in any year in history."

Using his own savings, he has been purchasing other types of specialized equipment. He says he's spent more than $1 million of his own money on that equipment, much of it specially designed.

"I tried to identify all the resources needed in the first week of a disaster," he said. While organizations like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army provide needed services such as food, water and shelter, Mr. Agoglia said there often is a need for specialized equipment.

And what happens when the money runs out?

Mr. Agoglia said he has contemplated that. He said he recently formed a nonprofit corporation called First Response Team of America, and hopes he will get corporate sponsorship, although he admits, "I don't know the first thing about non-profits."

Mr. Mudd, who speaks with Mr. Agoglia regularly, said he's not surprised he's doing what he's doing.

"He's an unbelievable guy," Mr. Mudd said. "He's probably one of the most unique individuals I've ever met. I just hope he's able to recruit some help in funding, because he's doing all this from out-of-pocket expense."

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