L.A. County plans its disaster response.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department is one of many agencies making great strides in the development of urban search and rescue programs. Much of the department's USAR training, equipment, and strategies have been tested on real incidents. Each incident presents new challenges and teaches new lessons. Before the establishment of the three-tiered USAR system, those personnel nearest an incident handled it. Many never saw a similar incident again. The lessons they learned were often lost because there was no system to collect their experiences, retrieve the information, and make it available to other emergency responders in the form of training programs. A major advantage of tiered response is the system's ability to ensure rapid response by trained, experienced, and well-equipped personnel. Rather than repeating mistakes and forgetting successful rescue methods, the system allows the retrieval of the experiences of personnel and their use in the development of training materials. Urban search and rescue specialists have the ability to build on earlier experiences to raise the overall level of skills. The net result is more effective training, increased efficiency, and enhanced safety for rescuers and victims. The field of urban search and rescue is still in its infancy. Many new and innovative strategies, techniques, and tools are on the horizon. In recent years, there has been growing interest in this specialty across the nation. We expect this trend to continue as breakthroughs occur. More than ever, it is important for all concerned agencies to share information and to work together to improve our ability to save lives.