As the death toll mounts from Saturday’s earthquake in Nepal, so does the likelihood that a task force of nearly 80 Southland firefighters will be sent to the region to help in rescue and recovery efforts, a county fire captain said.
More than 2,300 people were killed in the magnitude 7.8 earthquake, which struck just before noon local time (just before 11:15 p.m. Friday, California time).
Task Force Team Two, as it is known, was notified by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to gather its personnel and equipment and prepare for deployment, according to Capt. Roland Sprewell, public information officer with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Once the order is given, the team will fly out of either a commercial airport or military facility en route to Nepal, which was one of several countries where people died in the massive quake.
“We get ready as if we are going to get the thumbs up to launch at any time,” Sprewell said. “It just really depends on what’s needed there.”
Each member of the team, which includes about 80 people, has a specific area of expertise, from doctors to confined spaces and collapse experts to structural engineering specialists to dog handlers, he said.
“The majority are firefighter-paramedics,” Sperewell said.
There are similar teams in other countries, but only two in the U.S., and the other, out of Fairfax County, Virginia, already has been ordered to the region, he said.
