Search and rescue team practices responding to radiation disaster

The Los Angeles Fire Department’s urban search and rescue team has increased its training for radiation-related disasters, in the wake of what happened at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants. “In light of what happened in Japan with the nuclear reactors, we could theoretically have that happen here,” said Rick Godinez of the fire department’s California Task Force One.

During a recent exercise at a training facility in Sherman Oaks, rescuers clad in radiation suits and bright orange booties practiced how to respond to a medical research facility destroyed in an earthquake and emitting radiation. One of the challenges: how to safely decontaminate search dogs sent into the rubble and exposed to the radiation.

“The dog actually shook and sprayed it on the handler” during the exercise, Godinez said. “We need to be more diligent.”

He said the department used safe “training doses” of radiation during the exercise to accurately determine when rescuers became contaminated.

Godinez said it was the first time the department fully integrated a hazardous material team into an urban search and rescue exercise.

Seeing what happened in Japan was a stark reminder of the dangers of combined disasters that involve radiation.

“It’s a scary thing,” the veteran firefighter said.

Godinez said he’s watched closely as events unfold in Japan.

“Whenever I see something on TV, I have to think ‘how would we do that here in the city of Los Angeles.’”