Grant nets H.B. rescue program

If a building collapsed, a sewer ditch caved in or a person was stranded and injured over the side of a cliff a couple months ago, Huntington Beach would have had to rely on neighboring cities for help.

But thanks to federal grant money, two dozen Huntington Beach firefighters have completed advanced training and been able to purchase equipment to create an urban search-and-rescue program to further serve residents and allow the city to assist other communities in case of emergency.

“Before, we were really dependent on outside agencies to really protect our citizens,” said Battalion Chief Andrew Arledge, the urban search-and-rescue manager. “We’ve become more of an all-risk department by putting this team together. It’s really made the citizens of Huntington Beach safer.”

Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa’s urban-and-search and rescue teams worked together to rescue a worker trapped in a collapsed sewer drain Tuesday morning for the last of four training exercises. The drills allow the companies to learn to work together, getting to know the other cities’ people and equipment, so they can come together during an emergency situation, said Fire Chief Patrick McIntosh.

All the teams in the state have standardized training, “but with anything, experience counts, and there are always people that have different experiences we can learn from,” said Bob Dutton, team captain of Huntington’s urban search-and-rescue team.

Huntington Beach has one of only eight urban search-and-rescue teams in the county. The department began looking into forming a program in 2005, but it wasn’t until January that the team was ready and placed at Murdy Fire Station. The formation of the program has dramatically improved the city’s response capabilities, McIntosh said.

“We’ve significantly enhanced our ability to respond to major disasters in the community with almost no expense to the community because of the grants,” McIntosh said.

Two dozen firefighters on the department’s two trucks were chosen to go through the advanced training to make up the search-and-rescue team. The firefighters still continue their regular duties, but would function as an urban search-and-rescue team in the case of a disaster, Arledge said. The team members were given a 3% compensation increase for the advanced training, he said.

The team went through about 130 hours of advanced training, which the firefighters were able to do on duty through the grant funding. They trained in low-angle, trench and confined-space rescues; how to breach the walls of a building during a collapse; and how to use cameras, equipment and search-and-rescue dogs.

The training encompasses “buildings or areas that have collapsed that you can’t get into without the proper equipment,” Arledge said, a unique kind of training to what a firefighter would normally learn.

“I got a lot out of it. I thought it was very exciting,” he said.

The equipment was purchased, and the advanced training was possible through outside grants, said Martha Werth, spokesperson for the department.

“You are getting this increased level of service for no additional funding,” she said.