First responders frustrated at orders to abandon Haiti mission (Indiana's Task Force One)

[IndianaGreen]

First responders frustrated at orders to abandon Haiti mission

Updated: Jan 18, 2010 12:08 PM EST

Port-au-Prince - Urban search and rescue teams called up to help find victims in Haiti are being decommissioned and told to go home. That includes a member of Indiana's Task Force One.

Bill Brown is very angry and upset with the US government. Brown, an Indianapolis Fire Department Battalion Chief and commander of Indiana Task Force One, has been waiting at Homestead Air Force base in Florida since Friday. He and other members of a special advance command response unit were supposed to fly in to Haiti, but he says they have been hampered by bureaucratic red tape.

Four other urban search and rescue teams, including one from Ohio, have been told to pack up and go home. The Ohio task force had more than 60 tons of gear loaded on to a C-5 transport plane and 80 members were prepared to get on another aircraft when they were told their services were not needed.

Brown says his contacts from the six US search teams in Haiti say they badly need help. While FEMA has made the teams available, it seems USAID, which is heading the American humanitarian effort in Haiti, says those teams of first responders are not needed.

"It's just unbelievable. Words can't even describe the level of frustration," said Brown. "As firefighters we're trained - we never leave a fire until the fire's put out or the last person could possibly be saved," he said, adding that the "fire" was still burning.

Five people were pulled alive from a supermarket in Port-au-Prince just Sunday, five days after the quake. US teams have pulled a total of 30 live victims from the rubble.

The reason given for decommissioning the teams is that there are not enough resources on the ground in Haiti to sustain them. But according to Chief Brown, the teams are self-sufficient and travel with food, water, generators, fuel and vehicles and don't need outside assistance.

http://www.wthr.com/global/story.asp?s=11839584