SHACOG Technical Rescue Team

MISSION STATEMENT

The Mission of the team is to allow the volunteer and career fire departments and EMS agencies in the South Hills Area Council of Governments area more time to train on fire fighting and EMS skills and have them send their personnel, who are interested in technical rescue, to take on more training and certifications. The better utilization of rescue resources that are already in the South Hills of Pittsburgh and to be a resource for our area and others who may need technical rescue assistance. 

TEAM DESCRIPTION

The South Hills Area Council of Governments (SHACOG) Technical Rescue Team is part of the SHACOG Fire Chief Advisory Committee. The Fire Chief Advisory Committee is the overseeing agency for the team's utilization and funding.  The team is  made up of personnel from the 41 fire departments and 12 EMS agencies in the South Hills of Pittsburgh which covers 225 square miles and has a population of over 330,500

GENERAL TEAM INFORMATION

The Team was formed in January 2008 by the SHACOG Fire Chiefs Committee. .The team has 91 active members between the tech rescue and water divisions.  The Team uses the applicable OHSA Standards and NFPA 1670 to develop training for the team members and requires members to obtain the NFPA 1006 Technician level 2 certifications for the different rescue disciplines

WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN THE TEAM ARRIVES

Our goal is to be a technical resource for the Incident Commander, and our personnel to be force multipliers working with the crews already on the scene.    We are designed in integrate into your incident command structure and bring specialized equipment needed for the type of rescue operations being conducted.   The TRT does not take command of a scene unless asked too by the host service.   The TRT will respond on South or West Public Safety, a command officer will switch to your operations frequency.  We have the team go to a different frequency to keep radio traffic at a minimum.  A staging location will be picked and the TRT assets directed to report to staging and a team command officer will report to your command location. This allows us to bring equipment and personnel into a scene in an organized manor.   All TRT personnel will be in Lime green shirts, BDUs, or Chore coats and bibs all marked SHACOG TRT.