O.C.-Based Team on Way to Guam for Typhoon Aid

An Orange County-based search and rescue team flew to Guam Monday to assist residents hit by Typhoon Brian, a county fire spokesman said.

It was the first time the 56-member, year-old team, made up of local firefighters, medical aid providers and engineers, has ever been mobilized, said George Spencer, a dispatcher for the Orange County Fire Department.

The team was placed on alert Monday morning and was scheduled to fly out of March Air Force Base near Riverside late Monday evening, first to Hawaii and then on to Guam, a U.S. territory, Spencer said.

The team’s mission will be to help locate and rescue people from structures battered by the typhoon, which has generated winds of up to 125 m.p.h., according to weather reports. Typhoon Brian, the second typhoon to hit Guam in less than two months, was due to arrive some time Monday, Spencer said.

The team, called the Orange County Search and Rescue Task Force, is made up of firefighters from the Anaheim, La Habra and Santa Ana fire departments, and representatives of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the county Environmental Management Agency and General Services Agency, said Kathleen Cha, a county Fire Department spokeswoman. The team is expected to stay in Guam for three to 10 days, Cha said.

Two civilian engineers and two physicians are also part of the team, Cha said.

“This is a special team that has trained together for disaster situations,” Cha said. “They are trained with special equipment to be used in extrication, location and various types of medical responses. There is a canine search force as well.”