A SPECIALIZED FIRE UNIT STANDS READY TO RESCUE.Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer LANCASTER - A specially trained team of firefighters has gone on duty in the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley to handle calls involving people who become trapped. The Urban Search and Rescue The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. Team will be called out to rescue people from wrecked vehicles, collapsed buildings, mine shafts, pipes, cliffs or situations involving chemical spills chemical spill Public health An inadvertent release of a liquid chemical regarded as hazardous to human health which in a workplace is identified with hazardous materials labels. See Material Safety Data Sheets. or other hazardous materials. ``Any time there's a situation which warrants special equipment or training, these are the guys that handle that,'' said Los Angeles County Fire Department Not to be confused with Los Angeles Fire Department. The Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD), serves unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County, as well as 58 cities and towns that choose to have the county provide fire and EMS services, including the City of La spokesman Mark Whaling whaling, the hunting of whales for the oil that can be rendered from their flesh, for meat, and for baleen (whalebone). Historically, whale oil was economically the most important. Early Whaling Whaling for subsistence dates to prehistoric times. . ``They go through an extensive training process and handle the most dangerous of jobs.'' The team was brought to Lancaster when the Los Angeles County Fire Department decided it needed a unit in the northern county. The department's existing team based in Pacoima was shifted to Pico Rivera Pico Rivera (pē`kō rĭvĕr`ə), city (1990 pop. 59,177), Los Angeles co., SW Calif., SE of Los Angeles on the San Gabriel and Rio Hondo rivers; inc. 1958 with the union of Pico and Rivera into one community. and expanded to six people, and a second team was created for Fire Station 134 in west Lancaster. The teams were provided with specialized equipment including remote cameras, heavy lift jacks, and monitors for hazardous breathing conditions, including chemical and biological contamination. Each team will also receive trucks within the next couple of months designed to carry that equipment. The Lancaster team - two captains, two specialists and two firefighters - staffs two fire engines, and goes out on fire calls and other regular assignments when it is not needed for specialized rescues. The Lancaster team has not yet gone out on a rescue mission since being activated Feb. 1. ``They can't sit around and wait to be utilized in rescue situations so they are sent out on house fire calls or wherever they are needed at the time,'' Whaling said. ``They have become an invaluable tool in saving lives in situations that look hopeless.'' |
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