Riverside County Search Crews Called To Florida Condo Collapse

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — A search-and-rescue team from Riverside County is joining other units from California to help with emergency operations at the site of the condominium tower collapse in Miami, Florida.

Task Force 6, comprised of crews from the Riverside Fire Department and other Riverside County agencies, has been activated as part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency response to the catastrophe at the Champlain Towers in the Surfside community.

As of Friday afternoon, there have been 20 confirmed fatalities stemming from the collapse, and about 130 residents from the 12-story tower remain unaccounted for, according to Miami-Dade officials.

The cause of the structural failure is under investigation.

Search teams from throughout the country have been sent to the location.

Task Force 6 has been activated on numerous occasions, including to assist with recovery operations following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Team members spent weeks in New York City, sifting through rubble at the site of the World Trade Center collapse.

They were also involved in search-and-rescue efforts following the massive mudslide in Snohomish County, Washington, in 2014, as well as in Houston, Texas, to assist victims of Hurricane Harvey, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, to provide assistance to first responders after Hurricane Maria — both in the summer of 2017.

The task force is a federally designated Urban Search & Rescue unit and utilizes the expertise of firefighters, paramedics, emergency room physicians, structural engineers, rescue dogs, heavy equipment operators and hazardous materials technicians.

The Riverside Fire Department is the principal agency within the task force, but personnel from the Corona, Hemet, Murrieta and Riverside County fire departments are also involved.