Firefighters (l-r) Ryan Burton, Captain Kevin Tucker, and Lieutenant Greg Scott have become part of an elite state search and rescue task force. Three members of the Washington Fire Department have become part of an elite statewide search and rescue task force.

Captain Kevin Tucker, Lieutenant Greg Scott, and Firefighter/ EMT Ryan Burton underwent 240 hours of extra training to become a part of Georgia Search and Rescue Task Force 3, one of seven such task forces across the state.

“After 9/11, the state looked at how well they would handle a mass casualty incident,” Scott said. “And they saw it wasn’t good. The state began to set up these task forces, each one placed so one of the teams can be anywhere in Georgia within two hours, ready to work.”

Spurred on by grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the first search and rescue task force was set up in Metro Atlanta. Now there are two teams in Atlanta, and one each in Columbus, Macon, Savannah, Valdosta, and Augusta-Richmond County. An eighth response team will be manned in Gainesville in 2011.

Task force teams were deployed when a tornado hit Americus in March 2007, Scott said. “They deployed from Macon and were on scene within an hour.”

GSAR Task Force 3, hosted at the Augusta-Richmond County Fire Department, has 65 to 75 members including the three Washington firefighters. The task forces expect to be called out in the event of tornado or hurricane damage, or the collapse of a building, bridge, or construction trench. “We would respond to any kind of rescue that requires special- ized technical rescue skills,” Scott said. “We’re ready to go anywhere in the state.”

Each search and rescue task force is equipped with more than $2 million in emergency rescue equipment, and each task force member is outfitted with some $3,500 in specialized SAR equipment, Scott said. “When we arrive at a scene, we have to be self-sufficient for 36 hours.”

To join the task force, the already well-trained fire department members trained extensively to attain four more national certifications: rope rescue, confined-space rescue, trench rescue, and structural collapse rescue.

“That was why I wanted to join,” Burton said. “I knew I couldn’t get that kind of training anywhere else.”

The 240 hours of training took them away from their home department, but the firefighters felt it was time well spent. “We supported them every way we could,” said Washington Fire Chief Alan Poss. “This is a very good deal for small-town fire departments to have people with this knowledge base in these specialized areas, so they can bring back skills to this department.”

In addition to joining the elite Georgia Search and Rescue Task Force, the Washington firefighters know their new skills could be put to use locally. “Those could be used here, if somebody was putting in a pipe or a drain, and it collapsed,” Scott said. “We could use the confined-space rescue training to get somebody out of a manhole or a well. This adds a lot of technical rescue tools to our local department.”