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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE?
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Los Angeles, CA ? The County of Los Angeles Fire Department?s (LACoFD) urban search and rescue (USAR) team, known internationally as USA-2, successfully completed a 36-hour training exercise and evaluation by international experts last week at the Del Valle Regional Training Center to continue deploying to disasters around the world.
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This exercise was designed to challenge USA-2?s ability to operate effectively in a simulated real-life mission.? A total of 79 members and six canines, as part of USA-2, participated in the training exercise, and were evaluated by mentors and classifiers from Australia, Iceland, Qatar, South Korea, Columbia, United Kingdom, France, Singapore, Chile, and Japan.
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As one of two United States based USAR teams, USA-2 deploys overseas in support of the United States Agency for International Development?s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID/BHA), the lead federal coordinator of international disaster response.? Our counterpart, USA-1, is based out of Fairfax County, Virginia.? The USAID has deployed the USAR teams approximately 20 times since 1988, when the agency incorporated USAR teams into its international disaster responses.
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The USAID most recently deployed USA-1 and USA-2 in February 2023 after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck southern T?rkiye and Syria.
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For additional information on the life-saving humanitarian assistance and response efforts provided by USAID/BHA, please click here.
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LOS ANGELES, CA - The Los Angeles County Fire Department ?
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