Earlier this month, TFR personnel along with members from Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, Florida and St. Petersburg Fire Rescue that are part of Florida Task Force-3 completed a short notice state-wide exercise designed to test the abilities of its eight Urban Search And Rescue (USAR) teams to roster and deploy a team to a major disaster in the Panhandle.
Teams were given Situational reports of the simulated incident, and as the incident grew larger, each team was given Mission Orders which detailed their location and objectives.
The mission of Florida TF-3 was to perform a Wide Area Search and Rescue mission for missing families, secondary to an out of control wildland fire. The team was able to create the roster, check-in and be wheels up in under 4 hours from notification. This was the first of its kind Exercise where all 8 State USAR teams were activated and evaluated on their ability to deploy.
Original source can be found here.
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