Fire Department Plans Urban Rescue Unit
The Los Angeles Fire Department is assembling its first urban search-and-rescue mobile unit and will station it in the San Fernando Valley, fire officials said Friday.
The rescue equipment will be housed in a $9,000 trailer, donated by a commercial bank, and towed by a Fire Department truck. It will be used in response to such disasters as building, trench and freeway collapses, Capt. Lou Gligorijevic said.
When fully outfitted this summer, the 18-foot trailer will include medical supplies, specialized tools for cutting concrete and steel, and power rescue tools for heavy lifting and prying. It will have enough equipment to support two eight-member urban search-and-rescue teams, Gligorijevic said.
Fire officials said the department plans to station similar units downtown and in South-Central Los Angeles in the future. The Valley unit will be kept on a vacant lot adjacent to Fire Station 88 at 5101 Sepulveda Blvd.
Gligorijevic said search-and-rescue teams would probably be used in such emergencies as the May 21 trench collapse in Pacoima that left a man dead, or the collapse of a segment of the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.
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