page_title: Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department
section_title: Urban Search And Rescue (USAR)
hierarchical_section_title: Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department / Urban Search And Rescue (USAR)
caption_attribution_description: English: Type 1 USAR Team
context_page_description: The Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the unincorporated parts of Miami-Dade County, Florida along with 30 municipalities located within the county. In all the department is responsible for 1,883 square miles of land.
context_section_description: The Miami-Dade Fire Department is the founding member of one of Florida's two FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force.  Florida Task Force 1 (FL-TF1) is available to respond to natural or man-made disasters around the county and world and assist with search and rescue, medical support, damage assessment and communications.
  History
  In the early 1980s two fire departments, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (at that time known as Metro-Dade Fire Rescue) and the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department, operated under an agreement with the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) of the U.S. State Department to provide international search and rescue assistance in times of disaster.  During these early years, assistance was provided to the countries of Mexico, Philippines and Soviet Armenia.
  In 1991, FEMA incorporated a US&R team concept into a federal response plan. Over 20 teams were geographically chosen throughout the country, with local public safety departments as sponsoring agencies.  Today, under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)  there are 28 national task forces staffed and equipped to provide 24-hour search and rescue operations following earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes and other natural or human-caused disasters.
  Responses
  Earthquakes  1985 Mexico City    1986 El Salvador    1988 Armenia    1990 Philippines    1997 Venezuela  1999 Colombia  1999 Turkey    1999 Taiwan     2010 Haiti
  Hurricanes / Weather Disasters  1988  Gilbert, Jamaica      1989 Hugo, Eastern Caribbean     1992 Andrew, Miami      1995 Luis, Caribbean      1995 Marilyn, Caribbean      1995 Opal, North Florida     2000 Belize    2004 Charley, Charlotte County, Florida   2005 Katrina, New Orleans, Louisiana  2008  Gustav, Texas      2008 Ike, Miami-Dade County, Florida
  Flooding/Weather Disasters  2000     Mozambique
  Building Explosions  1995 Oklahoma City     1996  Columbo, Sri Lanka      1996 Puerto Rico     2001 Pentagon, Washington, D.C.      2001 World Trade Center, New York
  Airplane Crash  1995-96  Buga, Colombia      1996 ValuJet Crash, Florida
  Communications Support  1989 Romania     1991 Northern Iraq & Turkey    1994 Rwanda     1994 Haiti    1995 Montserrat     1995 Sierra Leone     1996 Bosnia     1998 Nairobi, Kenya
  Building Collapse  2007 Barbados,    2012 Doral, FL
caption: MDFR FLTF-1
exif: {}