County Program Gearing Up for Quick Response to Disaster

FOOTHILL RANCH —  In two huge semitrucks filled with emergency equipment, Orange County has staked its ability to deal quickly with a disaster.

The trucks, part of a $1-million emergency response program, are like a mobile warehouse equipped with mechanized racks that can with smooth precision move heavy boxes filled with lifesaving supplies and equipment.

“The bottom line is that this directly enhances our ability to save lives,” said Capt. Scott Brown, a member of the county urban search and rescue team that was sent to the Oklahoma City bombing site. “The time it takes to gear up for a disaster has been cut in half.”

Inside the dozens of orange boxes stacked more than six feet high on the trucks are the components of a mobile command post--everything from tents to medical equipment to newly invented hydraulic tools used to extract disaster victims from collapsed buildings.

The new equipment is the sum of lessons learned from dealing with natural disasters such as the Loma Prieta and Northridge earthquakes and the human-made catastrophe in Oklahoma City.

“What we picked up mainly deals with the organizational aspect of dealing with these kind of things,” Brown said. “It’s like mobilizing an army.”

In situations such as the Oklahoma City bombing, “our training absolutely did assist us,” Brown said. “That was one of the first significant deployments of our team and the organizational lessons we got from training together were critical in our response to that crisis.”

The county’s program is funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state Office of Emergency Services, which reimburses local rescue agencies for equipment purchased to deal with major disasters.

The major requirement for funding is that the tools must be chosen off a list provided by FEMA, which is trying to standardize equipment and procedures used by the 25 urban search and rescue teams across the country.

In recent months, rescue workers from throughout Southern California have been gathering to train at Orange County’s Foothill Ranch fire station.

The next time a giant earthquake hits Southern California, the county’s 62-member rescue team will be ready with equipment such as the Stanley Hydraulic Rescue Tool, a portable power source that hooks up to a saw and can slice through concrete beams.

“It’s a good tool that can help us save lives,” said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Pat Antrim. “It gives us the ability to maneuver around rubble at a disaster site.”

About 20 rescue team members from Riverside and Orange County practiced cutting through storm drain pipes last Thursday, the saw screaming as it chewed through concrete. In recent months, other teams from as far away as San Diego have come to Foothill Ranch for training.

Resembling an oversized generator on wheels, the hydraulic power source can be rolled onto the scene of disasters such as a collapsed building. Previously, much larger hydraulic power supplies had to be carted around on a truck.

“The problem was portability,” said Grant Sibley, a Stanley Hydraulic Tools representative who trained the rescue workers on Thursday. “This tool solves that problem.”

Purchased earlier this year, the hydraulic power source is one of several innovations that were created in the aftermath of major disasters.

Rescue workers trained Thursday with another recent invention--a handgun that fires an anchor into concrete blocks in a downed multistory building. Rescue workers can attach lines to the anchor and lower themselves down to help victims trapped on lower levels.

Although designed for use in major disasters, most of the tools can be used for everyday rescues “as simple as a kid stuck in a storm drain,” Antrim said.

“In my 18 years in fire service, there isn’t a year that goes by that we don’t try something new that has been adapted for rescue work,” Antrim said. “You never get a chance to stagnate.”