Calgary-based rescue team hones skills in debris-strewn former prison

From a collapsed basement at the foot of an elevator shaftto a helicopter that crashed into a building, there was no shortage of scenarios for Calgary-based Canada Task Force 2 (CTF2) duringa recent training exercise with some of the best in the business.

The team, comprised entirely of volunteers, is one of five heavy urban rescue teams in Canadaready to deploy to emergencies across the country. In order to hone their skills, they recently travelled to an immense training facility in the U.S.

"We had an incredible opportunity to go down to Fairfax County, Virginia, where we participated in a full-scale, 60-hour exercise on one of their training facilities down there and had the opportunity to learn from Virginia Task Force 1," said Susan Henry, the deputy chief of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency and one of the commanders of CTF2.

Realistic disaster replication

Henry said the Virginia task force is considered one of the best in the world and has experience with international deployments.

"The facility is incredible, they've got an old prison site that has resettable props where we can have the team simulate a response into a small town and have the ability to work through what that entire response would look like, from landing on theground in the town to completion," she said.

The training focused on a major earthquake fictitiously set in Nepal and how to rescue people from collapsed buildings.

Rescuing people from rubble

The CTF2contingent included 74 people, doing everythingfrom handling K9s trained to sniff out those stuck in rubble, to technical searchers who peer into debris with cameras,to rescuerswho actually dig in to pull out those trapped in collapsed buildings.

"The training, for me, was on a scale that I haven't seen before," said rescuer Greg Law, whose full-time job is a firefighter with the Calgary Fire Department.

Working with the Virginia task force was an honour, he said.

"These are the guys that I follow on Facebook, that I look up to," said Law.

The rescuerswere able to rappel into a collapsed basement through an elevator shaft, said Law, and practice how to get through concrete and metal that might block their way to 'trappedvictims' often played by real people.

Planning for the future

Although Calgary might not have earthquakes, structural collapse is a threatin any city, said Henry, plus the team has to be ready to deploy to B.C. to help if a major earthquake struck.

In the future, there could even be deployments overseas.

"We're always open to the international deployment, but right now we're focused on making sure that we have our skill sets in order in our own backyard and our own house," said Henry.

CTF2has been used during the Calgary floods in 2013, the Fort McMurray wildfires and the wildfires around Slave Lake.

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