VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Virginia Task Force 2 and the Virginia Beach Fire Department have dedicated this week to search and rescue training for collapsed buildings.
Task Force 2, a specialized urban search and rescue group, is deployed to areas that have experienced a disaster to search for people in broken buildings.
It's a difficult job -- they have to be able to pick up rubble in a way that doesn't cause any further collapses and doesn't put any trapped survivors at higher risk of being hurt.
They also provide emergency medical help when they find someone buried under debris in a scene like that.
RELATED: First responders from across the country in Virginia Beach for building collapse rescue training
From Oct. 15 to 22, the fire department has been focused on learning heavy lifting and moving skills, airbag techniques, shoring operations, cutting and burning how-tos, concrete breaching and crane operations.
These are some of the skills the task force used in Surfside, Florida last summer when the Champlain Towers apartment building collapsed. 98 people died in that disaster.
Task Force 2 worked 12-hour shifts around the clock, searching for survivors and recovering remains.
More recently, Task Force 2 helped out in Florida after Hurricane Ian. They worked to investigate a missing person list and helped survivors get off Sanibel Island.
The Virginia Beach Fire Department said 144 first responders from across the nation were going through this week of training.
