Fairfax County’s Urban Search and Rescue Team, known as Virginia Task Force 1, is in Florida ready to help with recovery from Hurricane Idalia, if needed.
Called out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Task Force 1 is closely monitoring the course of the storm and awaiting orders.
“We have deployed with 80 personnel and four canine responders — so 80 people and four responders with four legs,” said Battalion Chief Jeffrey Lewis with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department and the program manager of Virginia Task Force 1.
“We travel with roughly 60,000 pounds of equipment that is distributed through two tractor trailers, two box trucks and then a complement of smaller vehicles.”
Most of the team members are uniformed and volunteer members of Fairfax County Fire and Rescue, along with civilian structural engineers and emergency room physicians.
The team left Virginia on Monday night and is posted at a secured location in Florida, prepared to go to work should their skills be needed.
“That is really dictated by the jurisdictions that we assist and by FEMA, as they are supporting the jurisdictions that we are going to assist … morale is very high. This is what we do,” Lewis said.
“We certainly do not ever want to see anybody affected by a disaster of any kind or any magnitude. That’s always a terrible situation. It would be a wonderful world if our services were never needed. Unfortunately, things happen and all of us are very much geared toward helping out when they do and if an opportunity arises where we can actually provide assistance again,” said Lewis.
“We all want to help as much as we possibly can.”
