Article

Searching for Survivors

Nearly all the nation’s Urban Search and Rescue teams were dispatched to Ground Zero and the Pentagon in the aftermath of September 11.  

by Ed Comeau

The following article appeared in the January/February 2002 issue of NFPA Journal.  Reprinted with permission.
© 2002 NFPA Journal

During the past decade, the National Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Response System, operating under the aegis of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has grown to include 28 task force teams that can respond within 6 hours to any disaster site in the United States. The task force teams, complete with personnel and equipment, provide a resource local incident commanders can use at disaster scenes.

The program originally evolved in response to the need for trained personnel to assist in coping with natural disasters, primarily earthquakes. Following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, however, the government realized that the task forces had broader potential and began to deploy them to events, such as the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, at which a catastrophic event could occur.

Each US&R team has 62 members with at least two canines and handlers. In addition to firefighters, specialized positions on  task forces can include structural engineers, communication experts, rigging specialists, and physicians specializing in trauma rescue, among others.

The equipment cache that goes with each team is standardized and comprehensive. It weighs 60,000 pounds (27,215 kilograms), costs approximately $1.4 million, and contains 16,400 pieces of equipment. It’s designed to support the team for 72 hours without any outside support and includes food, water, housing, and sanitation.

The equipment cache is also made up of a specific list of rescue equipment. This list has evolved during the years based on numerous task force responses and continues to evolve. California modified its equipment list for teams that were deployed later based on the suggestions of the initial teams at Ground Zero. The equipment that is used ranges from cutting tools that can cut through reinforced concrete to telescoping cameras that can reach into small voids deep within a rubble pile.

The equipment cache is preloaded onto pallets that can be quickly loaded onto military transport planes. These loads are carefully controlled to ensure that no hazardous substances are transported, such as fuel. There are strict weight limits to ensure that the equipment and personnel can all be transported by a wide range of military aircraft, including C141s or C130s.

As soon as news of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon reached FEMA, the US&R task force teams were told to prepare for possible deployment.

By 7:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, for example, California officials had begun the process of pulling their teams together and assigning personnel.

“We were given a ‘heads up’ through the chain of command from OES (California Office of Emergency Services),” says Captain David Whitt of the Sacramento, California, Fire Department.

Twenty-six of the 28 US&R task forces were eventually deployed, 21 to New York City and 5 to the Pentagon.  Among the five responding to the Pentagon were the Fairfax County, Virginia, and Montgomery County, Maryland, teams, based near Washington D.C. The rest of the task force teams were flown in by military aircraft from all over the country.

Normally, a task force’s departure from its designated military base isn’t a problem because it works closely with its respective base on departure procedures. However, all U.S. military installations were on extreme high alert, which caused some delay in processing personnel and equipment.

“We were escorted everywhere we went by a member of the National Guard and the police department,” says Battalion Chief Perry Peake of the San Diego Fire and Life Safety Services and a leader of California Task Force 8. Because aircraft were at a premium, moving personnel and equipment presented an additional challenge.

“By 5:00 p.m., the task force was ‘wheels up’ from Travis Air Force Base,” notes Whitt. Task Force 8 arrived at McGuire Air Force Base outside New York City at 3:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, and members were processed and boarded buses for the trip to Manhattan. By noon on September 12, they were en route to Ground Zero.

The last few miles were the longest because the area had been closed to traffic.

“It took three hours to get across the bridge to the World Trade Center,” says Whitt.

When the task force reached the scene, its members started setting up their base of operations and began coordinating their efforts with those of the New York City Fire Department. Sadly, the job was more difficult than usual because many of the New York US&R task force had been killed. Among them was Chief Ray Downey, one of the developers of the national task force system, who’d been closely involved in the operations in Oklahoma City.

“Ray Downey was the instrumental force in the development of the Urban Search and Rescue task force system during the 1990s,” says Ed Comeau, a former member of the Phoenix Arizona Fire Department US&R team who was involved in the development of the Phoenix team. “His expertise in helping not only form but train the very teams called to his rescue will be missed tremendously.”

Despite the horror of the catastrophe, all those who responded spoke highly of the efforts of the New York City firefighters.

“We were treated like gold by FDNY,” says Peake. “We were honored that we were able to help our fellow firefighters.”

“It was a sad situation, but enormously touching. Everyone was working together under very difficult conditions,” says Assistant Chief Steve Storment, of Arizona Task Force 1, from the Phoenix Fire Department.

The task forces were divided into two teams, a day shift and a night shift. The teams’ first assignment was to triage the area and determine the scope of the disaster, the types of buildings involved, and the best place to deploy task force personnel. After that, “the mission was straightforward,” says Whitt. “Identify the void spaces, shore the void spaces, and search the void spaces.”

Once the operations was established, other task forces were rotated through to provide assistance and relief. All of the US&R task forces worked under the direction of the New York City Fire Department and side by side with police officers and firefighters.

“We were split-assigned with four other task forces, and our areas were split into quadrants,” explains Phoenix Fire Department Deputy Chief Russell Bovee, who was with Arizona Task Force 1, on-site from September 19 to 29. The scope of the scene was enormous, according to Bovee, who was also at the Oklahoma City bombing.

“One of the challenges was that this was the biggest rescue effort in this country. They activated all of the task forces for either the Pentagon or the New York, and they were facing challenges they hadn’t faced before.

“The work site was so big that it was hard to understand the complexity of it all. You could have put all of the task forces to work at the same time, and we wouldn’t have seen each other,” says Peake.

In all, eight task forces from California were among the 26 US&R teams deployed to the scene. This allowed the task forces that arrived later to learn from the preceding ones.

“We shared a lot of intel,” says Peake. “Every day at 10:00 a.m., there’d be a conference call with all eight task forces.” These calls, arranged by the California OES, continued as long as any task force from California was deployed.

“We learned a lot about what equipment to bring,” notes Peake. “Those that had already deployed would report, ‘We did this today, and it didn’t work.’ ” Members of another task force on the conference call could then identify a tool that might do the job better and make sure it got to the site.

Dealing with debris

Among the unique challenges at the World Trade Center was the amount of debris that had to be moved. Most of the buildings’ concrete had been pulverized, and extensive crane work was needed to get the towers’ beams, some of which weighed almost a ton per running foot (0.9 metric tons per 0.3 meter), out of the way so the crews could go to work.

“We were moving away the debris not only looking for bodies or survivors,” says Bovee, “but also so the cranes could work in the area. It was real time-consuming removing the beams.”

“Going slower meant going faster,” adds Storment, who served as safety officer for Arizona Task Force 1. “You worked more effectively because it was safer.”

The enormous amounts of dust also presented health hazards.

The Environmental Protection Agency was concerned that the large amounts of burning Freon in the air conditioning systems would generate phosgene gas, reports Storment, and the smoke produced by the deep-seated fires created inhalation hazards. The fires also generated extremely high temperatures. In some areas of the debris pile, temperatures reached 1,000˚F (538˚C).

Out of both tragedies came lessons for strengthening the US&R system’s ability to prepare and respond. Each task force will be assessing what worked for them. System wide lessons are also being looked at, including the need for additional funding, equipment, and training.

Ed Comeau is the principal writer for writer-tech.com, a technical writing firm.  He was previously the chief fire investigator for NFPA, and a fire protection engineer for the Phoenix Fire Department where he was closely involved in its Urban Search and Rescue program.