Toronto (CAN-TF3) Heavy Urban Search and Rescue

Last updated
Heavy Urban Search and Rescue / Canada Task Force 3
Agency overview
Formed2001
Preceding agency
Jurisdiction Toronto
HeadquartersToronto
Employees130
Annual budgetCAD $500,000 (2018)
Agency executive
  • Matthew Pegg, Fire Chief, Toronto Fire Services
Child agency
  • Toronto Fire Hazmat Team
Website HUSAR

HUSAR is the Toronto Heavy Urban Search and Rescue unit CAN-TF3 - an urban search and rescue unit able to respond to disaster situations at a city, provincial and national level, as well as offer international assistance.

Contents

CAN-TF3 is operated by Toronto Fire Services, in collaboration with Toronto Police Service and Toronto EMS created to deal with search and rescue operations in the City of Toronto. [1] This specialized unit was created following the September 11 attacks in New York City, United States and allows the city to deal with large-scale disasters. The unit can respond to situations outside of the city, and offer provincial, national, as well as international assistance.

The cities of Vancouver, [2] Calgary, [3] and the province of Manitoba, also currently have, or are developing, similar interoperable Heavy USAR capacity. [4]

Roles and responsibilities

Equipment

Product list and details
Make/ModelTypePurposeOrigin
Ford F250vanOSU-1 Search & Communicationsex-Toronto Paramedic Services 927 Type 2 ambulance
Ford F600/Dependable Emergency EquipmenttruckOSU-2 Incident Support Unitex-East York Fire Department Rescue # 2
Ford Louisville 9000tractor and trailerOSU-3 Base of Operationsex-commercial trailer
1990s Volvo VHDroll on-off truckOSU-4 (Shoring Unit)ex-City of Toronto Works Department truck
Ford 3500 seriesbusOSU-5 Search Dog Unitex-school bus
Western Star CNVtractor and trailerOSU-6 Rescue Unitex-pop deliver truck
Princeton Piggyback/BIC HydraulicsAll Terrain ForkliftSupport Units
Argo ResponseATVall terrain transport
John Deere Gator TH 6X4ATVfield transport
MCI 102 Highway Coachbuspersonnel transportex-GO Transit bus

Deployments

A list of major deployments of CAN-TF3:

See also

Other similar units

Related Research Articles

References

  1. "HUSAR". Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-02-08.
  2. Harrington, Jeff (2015-05-02). "Vancouver's Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team disappointed it's not in Nepal". CBC News.
  3. "Canada Task Force 2".
  4. "Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR)", Public Safety Canada
  5. "Enbridge fined in fatal 2003 explosion | CityNews". www.citytv.com. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013. Retrieved 3 February 2022.