MIAMI (WSVN) - South Florida Search and Rescue Task Force 2 is preparing to head north to lend a helping than to those living in the Big Bend and the Panhandle in anticipation of Hurricane Helene.
On Tuesday night, Task Force 2 was activated to deploy as Type 1, and they began their preparations in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
The self-sufficient teams are made up of engineers, Miami Fire Rescue crews, first responders and 28 other agencies across South Florida.
“Our team has extensive experience. The average beginning age of, for our members, is 17 years, all of it with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue,” said Lt. Obet Frometa.
The teams have a variety of water gear and heavy machinery such as high-water vehicles, boats and even K-9s to assist them in their search-and-rescue efforts.
“We have over 80 members of the task force that are going to be deployed. That includes rescue specialist, hazmat specialist, engineers, doctors, our K-9s,” said Miami Fire Rescue Lt. Pete Sanchez, “and we have a swift water component, which means that they will have boats that’ll be able to access areas that have flooding, because there’s a lot of storm surge that’s expected.”
“Every storm is different. The approach to every storm is the same; however, it’s the same for us,” said Florida Task Force 2 leader Christopher Diaz.”We have logistical support to be able to house, feed and support our personnel for 24 hour operations at a time.”
7News spoke with K-9 handler Barbara Tamburello to discuss how K-9’s like Blaze can assist rescue teams in finding and recovering people in natural disasters.
“Blaze is a Live Find search-and-rescue K-9, which means he alerts when he finds a live victim,” said Tamburello.
Canines are useful in search-and-rescue efforts, because they bring a certain level of skillset to the team, such as detecting and tracking live human scent underneath rubble and water. However, these high-skilled canines undergo a lengthy training period before they’re allowed in the field.
“The training is lengthy. It takes about a two-year process to get the dogs started and understand its, job and the training never ends. It continues for the duration of their working life,” said Tamburello.
Blaze was just one of the many dogs that were deployed to Hurricane Ian with their handler two years ago. These real-life experiences help prepare the dogs for the hours-long work they can face today, with the hurricane that’s projected to hit the Big Bend and the Panhandle.
“Ian was definitely a big storm. The Live Find dogs were searching for days. It takes a toll on them, so it kinds of prepares us to understand the agility work, time of training as far as getting their cardio in shape, and getting them ready, because we’ve experienced real-time scenario, so we understand what we are up against,” said Tamburello.
Teams are heading to Orlando and will remain there until the storm hits, so they can immediately disperse to areas that are most affected and will be there for the next two weeks.
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