WHAT: PA-Task Force 1 returns from its 17-day deployment to a high-rise collapse in Surfside, Florida
WHO: Members of PA-Task Force 1
Fire Commissioner Adam K. Thiel
WHEN: Friday, July 16, sometime between noon-2 p.m. (arrival time is tentative — please check our Twitter account @PhillyFireDept for updates)
WHERE: 6601 New State Road, Philadelphia
About 80 members of PA-Task Force 1 will return to Philadelphia on Friday after completing their mission to search for, rescue and recover those missing after the collapse of Champlain Towers South on June 24.
The Task Force is one of 28 federal urban search-and-rescue teams overseen by FEMA. The team is sponsored by the Philadelphia Fire Department and includes PFD members as well as first responders from throughout the region.
Deployment recap:
- PA-TF1’s convoy of buses, supply trucks and other vehicles deployed from Philadelphia on the night of June 30 and traveled about 1,200 miles south to its base in Miami.
- PA-TF1 includes technical search specialists, structural engineers, doctors, canines and canine handlers, and experts in hazardous materials and other related fields.
- About half the team worked at the site from noon to midnight while the other half worked from midnight to noon. Their duties included recovering remains and personal property, delayering debris, assisting in crane operations, and mapping and collecting data, .
- Members of PA-TF1 were among hundreds of specially trained first responders from across the world who worked tirelessly to bring closure to the many families affected by the tragedy.
- PA-TF1 left Miami on Wednesday morning. They stopped overnight in Georgia and will stop again tonight in Virginia before completing their journey home.