Grim Task Awaits Tampa Bay Rescue Task Force Deployed To Surfside

TAMPA, FL — Despite countless hours of ongoing preparation and training throughout the year, members of Florida's Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 3 hope they never get the phone call ordering them to the scene of mass casualties.

Nevertheless, the 72 team members from the Hillsborough County, Tampa and St. Petersburg fire rescue crews — along with health care workers, engineers and K-9 handlers for cadaver dogs — are ready to put their lives on hold and travel wherever they're needed when tragedy strikes.

So it was on Friday when the task force received word that it was being deployed to Surfside to aid in the rescue efforts following the partial collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium complex.

The task force is trained and accredited by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, one of 20 teams in the country at FEMA's beck and call to respond to man-made and natural disasters.

After receiving the call from FEMA, Urban Search and Rescue teams have a six-hour window to mobilize members, load up supplies, gear and search-and-rescue equipment into the task force's convoy of 24 vehicles including 18-wheelers, and head to the site.

For hurricane relief, the equipment may include shallow-bottomed boats to access flooded areas and search for people trapped in homes. In this case, the team brought along vibration detectors, sensitive microphones and cameras that can be inserted into the rubble to see if anyone is alive inside.

Task Force 3 left before dawn Saturday morning. By Saturday afternoon, members had received a briefing from disaster coordinators, and half of the team had been dispatched to begin digging through rubble and leading the team's four cadaver dogs as they searched the debris for live and dead victims.

"Our Task Force 3 crews have not stopped working on the site of the Surfside building collapse since we arrived," Capt. Adam Brown of Hillsborough County Fire Rescue said. "It's a long tedious process. Sometimes we're just bucket brigading, moving debris by hand. Other times we're using concrete saws or jackhammers to cut away pieces of large concrete and metal. We're listening for sounds and looking for any indication that there are people to be rescued in the pile."

Dividing into two teams, Task Force 3 members work 12-hour shifts 24 hours a day for seven days before a new task force arrives to relieve them.

The team brings its own tents, food, water and other supplies, and have set up a base camp near the site.

The route from the collapsed tower to the base camp takes task force members by a fence on which family members have posted photos of loved ones and placed flowers, a reminder to the task force of how critical their job is.

Even if the news is bad, Brown said it's rewarding to bring closure to people during the most heartbreaking moment of their lives.

"They are always in our thoughts and prayers," he said.

As of Sunday, rescue workers had recovered nine dead and were continuing to search for 156 people still missing.

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