Fairfax County Rescue Team One of Top in the Nation

When a natural disaster on foreign soil calls for specialized search and rescue teams, the United States Agency for International Development has two teams they can deploy in a matter of hours.One is in Los Angeles County. The other is in Fairfax County.

The team from Virginia is made up of members from Fairfax County Fire and Rescue. The Urban Search and Rescue teams deployed from the U.S. are trained to excavate people trapped under rubble, in the water and just about anywhere else they could get caught. When a powerful earthquake ravaged Haiti a year ago, county fire and rescue spokesman Capt. Will Bailey said the Fairfax County-based team was the first to head into the devastated country.

“Once they get called up for anything internationally they belong to the government,” Bailey said. “When the earthquake hit Haiti, they were on the ground there within a few hours.”

Since 1986, the USAR team in Fairfax County, Virginia Task Force 1, has been helping rescue people who have been victimized by natural disasters or other traumatic situations overseas. Bailey said the county only pays the more than 150 men and women for their work as county firefighters. USAID spokeswoman Gina Jackson said her agency pays 100 percent reimbursement for any deployment by either of the two teams in the U.S. Jackson said every five years, USAID conducts an open selection process for other departments to get a shot at being one of the two best rescue teams in the nation.

Before a heavy snowfall blanketed northern Virginia, the USAR, known as the Technical Rescue Operation Team when they are operating as county rescuers, practiced ice rescues in Falls Church. For two hours, the specially trained firefighters worked through simulated rescues getting people from the ice covered freezing waters. Capt. Joe Knerr said the team trains once a month on various kinds of rescues and USAID requires them to have a re-certification test every six-months.

Knerr, a 17-year veteran firefighter and team leader when the USAR team deploys, said the group of rescuers are trained for just about any situation they walk into. He said time and experience helps you with the mental obstacles you can’t train for, but nothing was able to prepare him for what he saw in Haiti.

“I’ve been on other deployments to other earthquake call outs, but nothing was like that,” Knerr said.

Lt. Rodney Vaughn was selected to head to Haiti as well.  Vaughn, a county firefighter for 22 years, said the scene in Haiti was catastrophic.

“The entire city was leveled,” Vaughn said. “Hundreds of thousands of bodies were everywhere.”

Battalion Chief Bob Zoldos said the USAR team is the best at what they do regardless the situation. Zoldos, leader of the USAR team, said the group has deployed to more than 100 disasters since their inception.

“We do a lot of small missions that no one knows about, too,” Zoldos said. “Most of us get involved because we love specialized rescue work.”

Click here for more information on the Fairfax County Technical Rescue Operations/Urban Search and Rescue teams.