Urban Search and Rescue California Task Force 1

Urban Search and Rescue California Task Force 1 or CA-TF1 is a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force based in Los Angeles, California. CA-TF1 is sponsored by the Los Angeles Fire Department.

CA-TF was created on April 4, 1993 when the Mayor of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles City Council authorized the Fire Department to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement with the California Office of Emergency Services (OES) and FEMA to sponsore a US&R Task Force.

CA-TF1 is one of six Task Forces that is Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) certified having received extensive training in responding to incidents involving chemical, biological or radiological agents.

When deploying, CA-TF1 can move its equipment in one of two ways. The first is to load the cache onto a military pallet for shipment via air. The second is over land via two 40-foot (12 m) semi-trailer trucks and a 24-foot (7 m) crewcab box van owned by the Task Force.

Deployments

 * September 11, 2001 attacks - Deployed to World Trade Center, New York City, New York for nine days of search around the South Tower debris pile.
 * 2002 Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City, Utah - Deployed to Utah on standby in the event of a disaster or attack.
 * Hurricane Katrina - Deployed to a Texas staging area.