Rescuers Take Flight to Help in Oklahoma : Task force: Specially trained County Fire Department personnel load up their equipment to fly to the bombing site.

A search-and-rescue task force based in the San Fernando Valley flew to Oklahoma City on Thursday to help unearth victims from beneath the burned-out rubble of the city’s bombed federal building.

“We have about a 72-hour window of time to save more lives,” said Rick Atwood, a rescue specialist for the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s elite Urban Search and Rescue task force based in Pacoima.

No strangers to danger, many of the 56 members of the task force honed their life-saving skills in two of the areas most devastated by the 1994 Northridge temblor--the Northridge Meadows Apartments complex and the collapsed parking structure at Northridge Fashion Center.

As one of 25 federally funded teams in the United States, the task force also traveled to the Hawaiian islands in 1992 after Hurricane Iniki. Yet many task force members figured Oklahoma City would be the most challenging assignment to date.

“It’s on a grander scale,” Atwood said. “The devastation is just incredible, but this is what we’re trained for.”

The task force was on standby after Wednesday’s explosion, which left dozens dead and hundreds injured. Don Tayenaka, a paramedic, said he was paged around 6 Thursday morning and told to report for duty.

“It’s just a terrible thing when you think of people being crushed,” said Tayenaka, who has been trained to treat such victims. “That’s why it’s very important that we get out there as soon as possible.”

The task force is staffed with structural engineers, doctors and canine units. It will be briefed and assigned to search a section of the bombed building for survivors, said Gary Sutters, a County Fire Department spokesman.

Armed with concrete-cutting saws, heavy drills and fiber-optic equipment to view concealed areas by camera, task force members were told to expect to spend three to five days in Oklahoma City.

“We’re just hoping for the best,” Tayenaka said. “Hopefully we won’t find too many fatalities.”

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In addition to the task force, two mental health workers from the Van Nuys office of the American Red Cross have gone to Oklahoma City to help counsel surviving victims, said Manuel Rivas, a Red Cross spokesman.

Rivas said his organization has been inundated with calls from people wanting to donate blood to the Oklahoma City victims.

“Oklahoma has not made a formal request,” Rivas said. “But if we are asked to send blood from Southern California it would be on hand.”

Cheryle Babbitt, managing director of donations for American Red Cross blood services based in Van Nuys, said that at many Red Cross centers, donations doubled after Wednesday’s bomb attack.

“We’re encouraging people to call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE and set up an appointment,” Babbitt said.