Urban Search and Rescue Arizona Task Force 1

FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team Arizona Task Force 1 or AZ-TF1 is a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force based in Phoenix, Arizona and is sponsored by the City of Phoenix Fire Department.[1]

AZ-TF1 is one of 28 FEMA US&R Rescue Teams with numerous disaster response capabilities such as search and rescue, hazardous material detection and decontamination, structural collapse rescue, technical search, emergency triage and medicine, live find and human remains detection canines, and disaster recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency created the geographically positioned teams in an effort to provide support for large-scale disasters in both the United States and the potential international response abroad. In recent years the FEMA US&R system has developed the ability for a modular response in the event a specific capability is needed during a disaster response. An example of this would be a swift-water rescue team needed to augment the current search and rescue assets already deployed. FEMA provides the financial, technical and training support for all 28 teams as well as manage an internal auditing system to verify and validate each team's ability to provide an elite standardized response of both personnel and equipment.