USAR Mission Statement Our Mission is to maintain an urban search and rescue team possessing specialized capabilities and resources for response to disaster sites, man-made or natural. The primary purpose of the task force is to safely and effectively: Rescue those that are in danger Search for those that are missing Recover those that have been lost Mitigate major property loss

Hamilton County Urban Search & Rescue (USAR)Task Force

A program of the Hamilton County Fire Chief’s Association Planned in 1996-1997as the county Fire Chief’s acknowledged the need for improved technical rescue capability in the county and the expense in training, personnel and equipment needed to achieve that capability. A cooperative effort was designed to address the need, based on a FEMA USAR TASK FORCE model. Task Force became operational in early 1998 Initial funding was 60% PRIVATE DONATION. Approximate direct costs of the equipment cache was $450,000. Costs of staff training and response has generally been borne by the many participating departments. Many individual members have borne the costs of personal protective equipment themselves.

The Task Force is 105 members strong, from 28 different departments, reaching outside Hamilton County to include members from Clermont, Warren and Butler County.
Training and Experience

All of our personnel have received a required training course of 200 hours and have received continuing education in the technical rescue disciplines of : trench, confined space, machinery. structural collapse, search, swift water and high angle rescue each year. We have shown a consistent ability to deliver 45 members to an emergency scene in less than 60 minutes.

The Task Force delivers a contingent of specially trained personnel with a cache of equipment that exceeds the FEMA “HEAVY” classification.

Our emergency response experience includes, search (wild land and technical), trench and structural collapse situations in Hamilton, Warren and Clermont counties. We responded to widespread tornado damage in Montgomery, Ohio (1999) and Xenia, Ohio (2000).
“outreach” and integration…

Interfaces very well with the FEMA Task Force in Ohio –Ohio Task Force-1, based at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton. Forty (40) of the 105 members of Hamilton County USAR are also members of Ohio Task Force-1. Our training, equipment and procedures are nearly identical.
Hamilton County USAR has begun serving as a model for statewide development of fast-response technical rescue capability in the Franklin, Summit and Cuyahoga county areas in a project of the Ohio Fire Chief’s and the Ohio Emergency Management Agency (EMA). Intent is to create a fast-moving, well equipped, well-trained technical rescue response throughout the state pending mobilization of Ohio Task Force-1 and other FEMA task forces.

Locally, Hamilton County USAR integrates our effort with The Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS), Greater Cincinnati Hazardous Materials Team and the local law enforcement community to address the threat of terrorism or naturally occurring disaster.


Commissioner
Steve Ashbrock
Chief-Madeira & Indian Hill Joint Fire District
513-561-7926 Deputy Commissioner

BJ Jetter
Chief-Sycamore Township Fire Department
513-792-8565