Seven Comox air force base firefighters with disaster training had just hours to gather their gear and deploy Sunday as part of Canada’s response to the earthquake in Nepal.
The Royal Canadian Air Force firefighters from 19 Wing Comox and the firefighting team from Trenton, Ont., are being deployed as part of a Disaster Assistance Response Team, also known as DART, one component of Canada’s response to natural disasters abroad.
The military firefighters have a wide range of skills and are trained for difficult rescue.
They train and prepare to be in a constant state of “high readiness,” Warrant Officer and 19-Wing Comox acting deputy fire chief Blayne Buckler said Monday.
The firefighters usually get as much as 48 hours to deploy — though one man at Comox air force base received about two hours’ notice.
“[On Sunday], they wanted to get people so quick, it kind of went from 48 hours’ notice … to ‘the plane is on its way — how quickly can you get here?’ ” Buckler said. “Since the guys were already trained to that level, they all stepped up.”
The firefighters are part of a Light Urban Search and Rescue team.
Once they arrive in Nepal, the team’s role is to assess buildings that have collapsed, Buckler said.
The firefighters will use drones to survey buildings from overhead, acoustic devices that will scan for signs of life, and cameras on the ends of extension poles that will snake through the rubble to photograph confined spaces.
They will evaluate in which buildings people are likely trapped alive, which buildings are potentially accessible and which are on the verge of collapse, Buckler said.
The firefighters likely will work in zones beyond Kathmandu, the capital and largest city in Nepal, though that decision had not yet been made, he said.
The Comox air base’s four platoons are now down to three with the seven-man team from Comox serving in Nepal. Typically, DART missions last about 40 days; the government will make the decision on the length of the Nepal mission, Buckler said.
The Canadian government has announced it will support established humanitarian organizations with $5 million to meet the immediate needs of people affected by the earthquake in Nepal.
