Iowa Task Force I ? a tool for local emergency personnel

BY KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

Just another tool in the tool belt, that?s the purpose behind Iowa Task Force 1 (IA-TF1).

Members of IA-TF1 met with members of the Henry County Sheriff?s Office and dispatch, Mt. Pleasant Police Department, Henry County Conservation, Henry County Engineers, Emergency Management as well as local fire departments on Wednesday, June 24, to discuss how the force could assist local agencies.

?I wanted our guys to be aware of the group,? said Henry County Emergency Management Coordinator Walt Jackson. ?If something happened, they?re a tool in our tool box.?

?We?re here as a resource for local departments. We plug into your system, we don?t take over,? said Dan Dall, director of IA-TF1 and a Battalion Chief for the Cedar Rapids Fire Department

The team may be monikered as ?urban search and rescue,? but the team of volunteers is so much more.

The team was formed in 2003 in a response to the events of 9/11 and the need for each state to have an agency that could respond to a structure collapse.

Since it?s inception, IA-TF1 has become specialist in confined space rescue; swift water rescue; shoring; breaching and breaking; urban and wilderness searching; and canine response.

The team has six K-9 units with three specialties: live find, human remains and wilderness. The dogs use an air scent method, meaning they use airborne scents to account for each person, when there?s one they can?t find, they begin searching for the person associated with that scent.

?What we don?t have is a tracking dog, where you have to have an article of clothing. In New York, they?re tracking the escaped prisoners by using clothing and following that scent,? said Dall.

The team has lent their services following the Parkersburg tornado, the floods of 2008, the Des Moines Younkers Fire, the Maquoketa Cave rescue, as well as multiple missing persons cases.

Jackson reminded those in attendance that if something were to happen in Henry County, say a missing person, the lead agency or department would need to call Jackson, as the emergency management coordinator. Jackson would then call the state, which would then decide if it was necessarily to deploy IA-TF1.

However, Dall says while working the proper channels, it?s okay to give him a call and brief him on the situation so deployment can be that much quicker.

Dall adds that in the event state red tape says ?no,? he can work with local agencies to make sure they?re being assisted.

IA-TF1 is available 24 hours a day and can be out the door within one-hour, with full deployment in three to four hours.

?It was very informative,? said Matt Leichty of the Wayland Fire Department. ?They have a lot of resources available.?

Leichty added with the amount of severe weather in the area currently, it?s nice to know they?re available to assist in case of an emergency.