Technical Rescue Team
BSO's Technical Rescue Team is summoned in dangerous situations such as structural collapses and entrapments.The team assisted in rescue operations following the 9-11 World Trade Center attack.
Station 32
3400 SW 4th Avenue
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33311
The Technical Rescue Team responds in extraordinary or highly dangerous rescue situations such as building collapses, confined-space entrapments and high-angle rescues. Prior to permanent assignment, team members complete several hundred hours of training and demonstrate proficiency in specialties such as trench rescue, confined space, rope rescue, swift water rescue and motor vehicle extrications.
Supplied with a specially outfitted tractor-trailer and other vehicles, the team arrives at incidents equipped with concrete cutting tools, emergency shoring and trench collapse equipment, fiber optic "snake" cameras (capable of imaging subterranean or inaccessible spaces), an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) used to transport equipment to remote sites and other specialized rescue equipment.
In September 2001, the team was called to assist with search and rescue operations following the collapse of the World Trade Center. Many team members participate in the Federal Emergency Management Administration's Florida Task Force 2, one of 26 urban search and rescue teams in the United States that responds to national and international disasters and emergencies.
The Technical Rescue Team has been honored for its rescue work by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Health and Safety Administration and has been called upon by the U.S. Coast Guard to assist with its search and rescue operations.
