By GLENN CORBETT
ince the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) organized the first urban search and rescue (US&R) teams in the 1990s, the effectiveness of these highly trained and fully equipped resources has been confirmed again and again. The communities devastated by Hurricane Andrew (1992); the Northridge, California, earthquake (1994); the Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building (1995); and others have all benefited from these teams’ response. In the years since, the program has expanded beyond the original teams listed below.
Legendary Fire Department of New York (FDNY) Deputy Chief Ray Downey is considered the “father” of the US&R program. His Fire Engineering articles traced the evolution of the rescue function and its many tools and techniques. Downey, along with several of the US&R teams he helped create, responded to the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. He was among the 343 FDNY firefighters who perished. (His bio at the time he wrote this article appears at the end.)
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