Urban search and rescue

But it was an absolute pleasure getting to, to meet up with you and, you know, you, you had some pretty strong leadership ideas that you talked about in our RSO course, and I knew it was something that would be very, very prevalent to what we talk about here on the podcast.

But for the people that don't know your background, can you just give us a, you know, a briefing on your journey into the fire service and then what led you into the, the FEMA US&R side?

Sure, abs- absolutely.

So the, uh, the fire service career started, uh, really about 33 years ago.

I was just taken aback by it.

And the USAR tech, the firefighter, John Aitchison, who I was... working with snapped me out of that and was like, come on, I need you over here for this guy.

And that's what I needed.

So that in itself, I was kind of already on the back foot.

Another is the fact you had search dogs, which were probably... not only a fundamental part of the team and morale, but also vital to use senses, their senses that human can't sort of sense, you know, the sense of smell, the kinesthetic sense, and just that sixth sense that a dog has.

Could you maybe speak to the search and rescue dogs and the dynamic with other teams and how that sort of cohesive joint operation worked?

the international teams that arrived so we were the second international team to get to Antakya so the Italians got there an hour or two before us and then others arrived after us so we were the first on the ground there There is a USAR coordination cell that the team leaders go to to be tasked certain sectors, certain areas and places where there's good intel, where people are still alive that we could potentially get out.

And.

Yeah, and that's been a conversation late in the people I talk to, especially with the disaster in Venezuela that's unfolding.

Talked to a bunch of USAR guys and guys that deployed down to Venezuela too.

We train on the FEMA task force side for these collapses of magnitude, but how do you really train for that? You know, when you are going after live victims and, you know, the world is falling around, falling down around you, how do you recreate that for training? And that's exactly what, you know, you have to put yourself into those, those odd and stressful situations.

You're

Do you hear it? Wilcox and Franklin.

Urban Search and Rescue.

Two task forces actually responded out to this.

And look right there.

And 9-11 proved you can be overwhelmed.

We would, pre-9-11, if a country had an earthquake or tornadoes or floods or hurricanes, we would deploy our USAR team, the Urban Search and Rescue Team.

We'd deploy them out.

And we had multiple things going on at the same time, never figuring that we would ever be overwhelmed.

It's the intermix.

And yeah, so we have to be proficient in training in wildland operations to marine operations and everything in between structure fires, EMS, USAR.

I mean, there's so many dynamics that the LEFD has, you know, the disciplines that we have to learn and especially coming from training.

I have total of in train.

You do the research and you move on from there.

So, you know, with that, I just want to go back again, just because of the disciplines that you have.

On the in-service training side, like you mentioned before, you know, you've got USAR, you've got Wyland, you've got water, you've got structural and you've got everything in between.

How much training? Oh, and of course, EMS, right? So how much training are you putting your members through or how often are they training? How often are they going to those four training facilities outside of downtown just to do their in-service training and how much is done at the station?

Uh, so they'd rescued him, but then there was three people still unaccounted for in this, in this building collapse.

So, uh, I was at build at the time, uh, so myself and, uh, and Kevy O'Connor, who, who's, uh, he's, he was actually one of my USAR instructors as well, um, but now my station officer and I was a fiery.

Uh, we ended up being sent as urban search and rescue technicians to, um, you know, to deal with this incident, and, uh, we were actually tasked with the, the, the, uh, what we call the alpha side or alpha sector there, um, where, um, the, the reports of a woman and child that had been buried there.

And obviously you rock up, you're all excited to get in there and, and help.

Post Instructor of the Year.

His career also includes serving as a USAR team manager with the Sacramento Task Force 7 and deployed to Ground Zero on this day 25 years ago following the September 11 attacks.

Good morning, Chief.

It's always an honor to have you.

So I went to all the drills.

Then I realized they needed logistics specialists.

Like what's the logistics, but at least, you know, USARS, you know, often people say it stands for uses stacking and restacking, right? Of boxes.

Cause you're always moving boxes and uses stack, uses stack and restacking.