Urban Search and Rescue California Task Force 1

Urban Search and Rescue California Task Force 1 or CA-TF1 is a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force based in Los Angeles, California and sponsored by the Los Angeles Fire Department.^[1]

CA-TF1 Patch

Task Force 1 was established on April 4, 1993, when the Mayor of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles City Council authorized the Fire Department to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement with the California Office of Emergency Services (OES) and FEMA to sponsor a USAR Task Force.^[2]

CA-TF1 is one of six Task Forces that is Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) certified having received extensive training in responding to incidents involving chemical, biological or radiological agents.^[2]

When deploying, CA-TF1 can move its equipment in one of two ways. The first is to load the cache onto a military pallet for shipment via air. The second is over land via two 40-foot (12 m) semi-trailer trucks and a 24-foot (7 m) crewcab box van owned by the Task Force.^[2]

Deployments

• September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - Deployed to World Trade Center, New York City, New York^[3] for nine days of search around the South Tower debris pile.^[2]
• 2002 Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City, Utah - Deployed to Utah on standby in the event of a disaster or attack.^[2]
• Hurricane Katrina - Deployed to a Texas staging area.^[4]
• Hurricane Rita - Deployed to a Texas staging area.
• Hurricane Gustav - Deployed to a Louisiana staging area
• Hurricane Ike - Deployed to a Texas staging area
• Hurricane Harvey - Deployed to a Texas staging area.^[4]

References

1. "Task Force Locations". FEMA. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
2. (PDF). Fire Watch. 2 (3). March 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-10-31. Retrieved 2006-08-30.
3. "Searching in Hope: FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Teams". FEMA. Retrieved August 28, 2006.
4. (Press release). FEMA. September 3, 2005. Archived from the original on September 26, 2006. Retrieved August 28, 2006.