Members of the Nevada Task Force 1 Urban Search & Rescue Team take part in Exercise Arctic Eagle, a yearly joint training exercise series in Arctic climates involving various national, state and local agencies.
Wednesday, March 4, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Aric Searl has fought fires in extreme scenarios over the years with the North Las Vegas Fire Department, everything from inside collapsing buildings to battling blazes in 117-degree summer temperatures.
But nothing could have prepared him for the sub-zero temperatures in Fairbanks, Alaska, where he recently trained with the Nevada Task Force 1 Urban Search & Rescue Team.
“Just stepping outside, no matter what you’re wearing, you get a bronchospasm — it makes your lungs feel like they need to cough as soon as you walk outside,” he said.
The five-person team participated in Exercise Arctic Eagle, a yearly joint training exercise series in Arctic climates involving various national, state and local agencies. It involved around 900 rescue workers and personnel from 15 states.
Nevada Task Force 1 is a Clark County-sponsored search-and-rescue team comprising former and current first-responders and law enforcement. They need training to stay prepared to respond to events in the Las Vegas area, meaning that the opportunity to face extreme conditions — it was 24 degrees sub-zero in Fairbanks — is a valuable resource. The task force in recent years has also assisted with search efforts in neighboring states.
“The exercise involved a structure collapse and looking for victims,” he said. “All of it was to challenge our equipment or widespread catastrophic destruction.”
To simulate potential search-and-rescue scenarios, they worked with dogs during the Alaska training to search for team members in debris. They also used cadavers from morgues to simulate deceased victims, Searl said.
They were able to train wearing cold-weather gear, which is important to test the mobility of rescue workers when sporting the unfamiliar attire. They also tested electronic equipment in the cold, such as acoustical listening equipment, search cameras and structural engineer equipment.
More important, they got to share tricks of the trade with colleagues from other states.
“It was fun to work with everyone and not just people within our own department,” he said.
