|
|
|
|
|
4 September 2026
|
How US first responders pull off dramatic rescues
In late May, first responders from the Fairfax County, Virginia and Los Angeles County, California, fire and rescue departments met for a gruelling, 96-hour exercise, simulating a 7.9 magnitude earthquake. The annual drill, coordinated by the US State Department, keeps the teams’ skills honed so that they’re ready for a real disaster. Such drills are required under rigorous International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) standards. The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team and the Los Angeles County Fire Department USAR team — respectively called USA-01 and USA-02 — have proven they can conduct 24-hour operations at two different sites for 10 days.
To meet the INSARAG classification takes years, and the teams must stay prepared with regular exercises, says Hilary Dittemore, disaster operations officer at the State Department. “It’s no small feat.”
Little did the teams know during that May exercise how pertinent it would be. Barely a month later, they got the call from the State Department. Two earthquakes — a 7.2 magnitude quake near the town of Yumare, Venezuela and another, 7.5 magnitude, seconds later — hit on June 24 and left thousands dead or trapped under collapsed buildings. Two additional teams from the Miami region (Miami-Dade County and city of Miami) joined the Virginia and California teams’ mission, part of a US relief effort totalling over $386 million.
Speed is essential due to the limited time a trapped victim can survive.
The State Department can “pull the trigger fast,” says John Morrison, spokesman for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. “The earthquake happened at 6pm and I think we had an activation order at 11. That really allows us … to get to a country within 48 hours.”
In Venezuela, the USA-01 and USA-02 teams — comprising 152 first responders and 12 search-and-rescue dogs — worked in shifts for 140 hours straight, alongside their Miami colleagues and other international teams. They caught only a few hours of sleep, sometimes on a pile of rubble, while searching for and extracting survivors.
“The two teams are experienced working together,” says Captain Aaron Katon, public information officer for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. They have teamed up to help after other disasters, most recently in 2025 in response to Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, part of a broader US Disaster Assistance Response Team humanitarian effort in the Caribbean.
While the two teams are required to do one drill yearly, they often do two, “which is a lot of work,” says Katon but which improves their readiness.
A mission kicks off with a request from the country in need. From there, INSARAG facilitates the coordination of urban search and rescue teams from around the world.
These elite teams bring all their own gear (more than 70,000 pounds of equipment, in Fairfax’s case), as well as their own food, water, shelter, medical equipment and other supplies. “We don’t want to be a burden on the country when we get there. Everything that we’re going to need in country, we bring ourselves,” Morrison explains.
Once at the disaster site, the American teams typically leave less-complicated searches — collapsed one- or two-story buildings where people can remove cinder blocks by hand — to local rescuers. The American teams move to areas where there could be large voids under rubble, in which people might survive the crush of concrete.
The dogs are trained to detect the scent of living humans. If one dog signals it has identified a human, the team sends out a second dog — one that did not observe the first one — to double-check. Then, rescuers put a seismic and acoustic listening device in the area where the dogs have signalled. The rescuers listen for signs of life, a tap-tap or someone pleading for help. Then they begin efforts to unearth the victim, which Morrison says can take up to 14 hours.
When someone is rescued alive, the strenuous work feels well worth it, Morrison says. Rescuing a survivor “is one of the biggest emotional highs you can get, ever.”
In Venezuela, the US-based teams led six dramatic rescues. In one case, an 8-month-old was kept alive by milk delivered via a tube manoeuvred through the rubble, allowing the baby’s also-trapped mother to feed the baby, recalls Dittemore.
In another, a woman waiting to be freed from the rubble was given an IV through her foot — the only part of her body the rescuers could access.
The LA and Miami first responders, working alongside Chilean and other international teams, achieved one of the most astonishing rescues of all: a four-day effort to free a security guard who had been underground for a total of eight days after having taken refuge under his desk before the initial collapse.
After a rescue, “you’re right back to work because there’s more to do,” says Morrison, who was at the earthquake scene in Venezuela during the 10-day mission. “It’s like a few minutes of celebration” and then back to work.
When survivors are brought out of the rubble, the teams treat them for “crush syndrome,” a buildup of toxins in the muscles brought on by a long period of immobility. Because the toxins can get into the bloodstream, leading to deadly heart and kidney problems, the US teams quickly administer sodium bicarbonate and other fluids.
One of the most fulfilling parts of any rescue mission, the LA fire department’s Katon says, is the “human connection” rescuers make with the people of the country in need. The rescue teams represent an American face of compassion.
“It’s a message we’re really proud to send,” Katon says. “We really care. In a time of need, whether it’s down the street or on the other side of the world, to be able to lend a hand, to be able to be of help … It’s honestly a gift to be able to do that.”
Photo1: Members of the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue team, or USA-01, pull a woman from the rubble in Venezuela June 28. (Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue/John Morrison)
Photo2: Two members of the Miami-Dade Urban Search and Rescue team walk with their dogs June 28 in the disaster zone in La Guaira, Venezuela. (U.S. Marine Corps/Lance Corporal Allison White)
Photo3: Members of Los Angeles County’s urban search and rescue team celebrate the July 2 rescue of Hernan Gil, who had been buried under the rubble since June 24. (© Carlos Becerra/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)
Photo4: On June 27, a mother and her 14-month-old baby are rescued in La Guaira, Venezuela, by USA-01 and a contingent of Venezuelan firefighters. (State Dept./Nancy Riley)
Source: Share America
To meet the INSARAG classification takes years, and the teams must stay prepared with regular exercises, says Hilary Dittemore, disaster operations officer at the State Department. “It’s no small feat.”
Little did the teams know during that May exercise how pertinent it would be. Barely a month later, they got the call from the State Department. Two earthquakes — a 7.2 magnitude quake near the town of Yumare, Venezuela and another, 7.5 magnitude, seconds later — hit on June 24 and left thousands dead or trapped under collapsed buildings. Two additional teams from the Miami region (Miami-Dade County and city of Miami) joined the Virginia and California teams’ mission, part of a US relief effort totalling over $386 million.
Speed is essential due to the limited time a trapped victim can survive.
The State Department can “pull the trigger fast,” says John Morrison, spokesman for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. “The earthquake happened at 6pm and I think we had an activation order at 11. That really allows us … to get to a country within 48 hours.”
In Venezuela, the USA-01 and USA-02 teams — comprising 152 first responders and 12 search-and-rescue dogs — worked in shifts for 140 hours straight, alongside their Miami colleagues and other international teams. They caught only a few hours of sleep, sometimes on a pile of rubble, while searching for and extracting survivors.
“The two teams are experienced working together,” says Captain Aaron Katon, public information officer for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. They have teamed up to help after other disasters, most recently in 2025 in response to Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, part of a broader US Disaster Assistance Response Team humanitarian effort in the Caribbean.
While the two teams are required to do one drill yearly, they often do two, “which is a lot of work,” says Katon but which improves their readiness.
A mission kicks off with a request from the country in need. From there, INSARAG facilitates the coordination of urban search and rescue teams from around the world.
These elite teams bring all their own gear (more than 70,000 pounds of equipment, in Fairfax’s case), as well as their own food, water, shelter, medical equipment and other supplies. “We don’t want to be a burden on the country when we get there. Everything that we’re going to need in country, we bring ourselves,” Morrison explains.
Once at the disaster site, the American teams typically leave less-complicated searches — collapsed one- or two-story buildings where people can remove cinder blocks by hand — to local rescuers. The American teams move to areas where there could be large voids under rubble, in which people might survive the crush of concrete.
The dogs are trained to detect the scent of living humans. If one dog signals it has identified a human, the team sends out a second dog — one that did not observe the first one — to double-check. Then, rescuers put a seismic and acoustic listening device in the area where the dogs have signalled. The rescuers listen for signs of life, a tap-tap or someone pleading for help. Then they begin efforts to unearth the victim, which Morrison says can take up to 14 hours.
When someone is rescued alive, the strenuous work feels well worth it, Morrison says. Rescuing a survivor “is one of the biggest emotional highs you can get, ever.”
In Venezuela, the US-based teams led six dramatic rescues. In one case, an 8-month-old was kept alive by milk delivered via a tube manoeuvred through the rubble, allowing the baby’s also-trapped mother to feed the baby, recalls Dittemore.
In another, a woman waiting to be freed from the rubble was given an IV through her foot — the only part of her body the rescuers could access.
The LA and Miami first responders, working alongside Chilean and other international teams, achieved one of the most astonishing rescues of all: a four-day effort to free a security guard who had been underground for a total of eight days after having taken refuge under his desk before the initial collapse.
After a rescue, “you’re right back to work because there’s more to do,” says Morrison, who was at the earthquake scene in Venezuela during the 10-day mission. “It’s like a few minutes of celebration” and then back to work.
When survivors are brought out of the rubble, the teams treat them for “crush syndrome,” a buildup of toxins in the muscles brought on by a long period of immobility. Because the toxins can get into the bloodstream, leading to deadly heart and kidney problems, the US teams quickly administer sodium bicarbonate and other fluids.
One of the most fulfilling parts of any rescue mission, the LA fire department’s Katon says, is the “human connection” rescuers make with the people of the country in need. The rescue teams represent an American face of compassion.
“It’s a message we’re really proud to send,” Katon says. “We really care. In a time of need, whether it’s down the street or on the other side of the world, to be able to lend a hand, to be able to be of help … It’s honestly a gift to be able to do that.”
Photo1: Members of the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue team, or USA-01, pull a woman from the rubble in Venezuela June 28. (Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue/John Morrison)
Photo2: Two members of the Miami-Dade Urban Search and Rescue team walk with their dogs June 28 in the disaster zone in La Guaira, Venezuela. (U.S. Marine Corps/Lance Corporal Allison White)
Photo3: Members of Los Angeles County’s urban search and rescue team celebrate the July 2 rescue of Hernan Gil, who had been buried under the rubble since June 24. (© Carlos Becerra/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)
Photo4: On June 27, a mother and her 14-month-old baby are rescued in La Guaira, Venezuela, by USA-01 and a contingent of Venezuelan firefighters. (State Dept./Nancy Riley)
Source: Share America