LA Search-and-Rescue Team Heads to Haiti

Commanders of the 72-member team received a request Tuesday from the U.S. Agency for International Development and set up a staging area at the Urban Search and Rescue facility at 12605 Osborne St. in Pacoima. Team members received the deployment order at about noon Tuesday, and departed Wednesday from March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, said county fire Inspector Frederic Stowers.

The specialized team will be self-sufficient, Stowers said.

"They'll be working together," he said. "If necessary, they'll coordinate with members of the U.S. Embassy in Haiti for translators. But these guys are trained to be self-reliant."

French is the dominant language in Haiti. No French speakers had been identified on the county's urban search-and-rescue team, but the potential language barrier was the least of squad members' concerns, Stowers said.

The California Task Force 2 team includes firefighters, paramedics, rescue specialists, emergency room physicians, structural engineers, heavy equipment specialists, search dogs and handlers, hazardous material technicians, communications specialists and logistics experts.

The rescue team will bring with it 55,000 pounds of prepackaged tools and medical equipment to conduct around-the-clock search-and-rescue operations.