By Jamie Thompson
EMS1 Senior Editor
LOS ANGELES COUNTY — Paramedics and firefighters from the United States are helping to lead rescue efforts in Haiti in the aftermath of an earthquake that devastated the nation’s capital.
Tens of thousands of people are feared trapped or dead following the magnitude-7 earthquake Tuesday. The Red Cross said Haiti’s disaster relief teams were “completely overwhelmed.”
Severe damage to at least eight hospitals is making it nearly impossible to treat the tens of thousands of injured in the capital of Port-au-Prince or prevent outbreaks of disease, said Paul Garwood, spokesman for the World Health Organization, and hotels are being converted into makeshift treatment centers.
Urban Search and Rescue teams Virginia Task Force 1 and California Task Force 2 were activated Tuesday evening to begin gathering personnel — including firefighters and paramedics — and equipment, and flew out to the island the following day. On Wednesday night, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden authorized FEMA sending six more USAR units.
Local-based responders have been improvising to help victims by turning pickup trucks into ambulances and using door as stretchers. However, CBS reported Thursday the efforts are often to no avail because there are few areas in which to then get medical help.
The United States has put 12,000 medical personnel on alert for conducting relief effort in the quake-torn country, according to reports.
“Doctors, nurses, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and the other medical personnel in our National Disaster Medical System and U.S. Public Health Service are preparing to travel to Haiti to provide immediate medical care to the injured,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday.
Early rescue
Responders from the Fairfax County-based Virginia Task Force 1 made a rescue within hours of their arrival, helping to pull free a security guard from the collapsed United Nations building early Thursday morning in Port-au-Prince.
“We had information that somebody was trapped in one of the buildings here and we sent a four-person recon team out, and they confirmed that with our listening devices,” Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Lt. Mike Davis told CNN.
Are You Prepared for a Disaster? By Art Hsieh, EMS1 AdviserAs an EMS professional living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area, earthquakes like the one that devastated Haiti are never far from my mind. Nor should it be from yours: most of us live in areas that are subject to natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, tornados and whiteout snow conditions. Remember that you can only respond if you are ready to, meaning that you, and your loved ones, must be prepared for the disaster as well. Personal disaster planning is essential. Examples include:
Web sites like 72hours.org can provide valuable information to help prepare you for your job as a rescuer. We are only as good as we are ready to go. Art Hsieh, MA, NREMT-P, is Chief Executive Officer & Education Director of the San Francisco Paramedic Association, a published author of EMS textbooks and a national presenter on clinical and education subjects. |
He said a 15-person rescue squad was subsequently dispatched and used thermal imaging cameras to locate the trapped victim.
“We probably went through about two-and-a-half to three stories down to get him and were able to self-assist him out,” Lt. Davis said. “There was a lot of de-layering and jack hammering and then had to remove multiple pieces of concrete.”
Constant updates
Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Matt Levesque said the California Task Force 2 rescue unit received reports from the ground and monitored TV news coverage before its arrival.
“We are fortunate that our group in particular is well equipped to deal with earthquake preparedness as it’s something we deal with all the time here in California,” he said.
“The initial goals of the unit are to get into there to help and assist in the rescue efforts of people. After an earthquake, we do have the period of time where the greatest chance of survival is in the first few days.”
While the team will be looking to work with local disaster response groups where it can, Insp. Levesque said the unit is self-sustaining and trained to be able to operate without any outside organizations.
“Communications will have been hit hard and it is a third-world country as it is,” he said. “Obviously there will be some people that are able to help but even the UN has been hit pretty hard there, so the people who may have the greatest knowledge may not be able to help.”
Clearing rubble
Aid officials in the impoverished nation are working to clear rubble from roads, build makeshift hospitals and remove bodies from collapsed buildings.
Both the Los Angeles County and Fairfax County-based USAR units initially dispatched have as many as 72 personnel, six search and rescue canines and up to 48 tons of rescue equipment.
USAR units contain firefighters and paramedics, rescue specialists, emergency room physicians, structural engineers, heavy equipment specialists, canine search dogs and handlers, hazardous materials technicians, communications specialists and logistics specialists.
Firefighters at Fairfax County’s training academy began loading Virginia Task Force 1’s 90,000 pounds of equipment Tuesday evening. The team departed for Haiti from Dulles International Airport late Wednesday morning and is self-sustaining for approximately 14 days.
Dave Rohr, Assistant Chief at Fairfax County Fire and Rescue, which has members on Virginia Task Force 1, told WUSA9 that some were also deployed to Haiti toward the end of 2008 following a school collapse.
“We have special groups within the team that include medical directors, structural engineers and different rescue specialists so everybody has a specialty on the team,” he said. “We work in those small groups to do certain missions when we are deployed.”