These teams have a range of specialist equipment to find lost or trapped people, including:

• Listening devices

• Equipment for lifting and moving large pieces of rubble

• Equipment to cut through concrete, masonry and metal

• Specialised search cameras

• Props to shore up unsafe buildings and kit to create wooden shores

• Ropes to lift people out of collapsed buildings

Once the search team has pinpointed the lost person, they have a range of tools at hand to make the area safe and work to complete a rescue. Every rescue is different, but might include shoring up fallen masonry, cutting through debris to help people to safety, or using heavy lifting equipment to create exit routes

The San Andreas Fire Department has a number of methods to rescue people from heights. Usually, these involve ladders or aerial appliances, but sometimes these are not suitable and we use ropes. San Andreas has many tall structures, such as tower cranes, and deep excavations like trenches or tunnels. Occasionally the Tech Rescue team is called on to rescue people from these places and in certain cases, the best way to carry out the rescue is by using ropes to raise or lower them.

They attend incidents that involve hazardous materials and work to make people – and the area around the incident – safe.

There are typically two kinds of incidents we respond to:

• Accidents (like spills or chemical leaks)

• Incidents with criminal intent (terrorism).

Depending on the nature of what’s happened, we’ll work with Law Enforcement to reduce harm and resolve the situation.

It depends on what’s happened, but we may help in a number of ways, including:

• Mass decontamination – setting up special ‘hugh showers’ to reduce risk to the public.

• Stopping chemicals getting into the water system following tanker crashes.