s p e c i a l i s t u n i t s

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1 Saf The SAF personnel (High Angel Rope Rescue Teams also specialized in cave and fluvial rescue) of the Italian National Fire and Rescue Service are composed of full-time Firefighters. During technical emergency operations they employ speleological, climbing and river equipment and procedures duly adapted and developed to be used in inaccessible places. They allow to increase rescuers safety and to improve the quality of service given to the population. All Provincial Central Fire Stations have specialized SAF personnel at the four progressive qualification levels. In case of earthquakes, SAF personnel work together with the Cultural Heritage and Environment Office to safeguard very important historical works of art and monuments (towers, bell towers, churches, strongholds, etc.).

2 Dog units The Italian National Fire and Rescue Service includes 115 dog units located within the Regional Fire Service Directorates operating all over the national territory. The dog units are used in technical emergency rescue or search operations in case of avalanches, landslides and search of people, both on the surface and under the debris. The use of dogs allows to reduce times of rescuing, particularly in areas difficult to search, and to increase the possibility of finding missing people. Dog units can also been sent abroad in the framework of international rescue operations. Personnel belonging to dog units can achieve two kinds of qualification: for surface or debris activities. The qualification as a member of a dog unit can be achieved by professional and volunteer personnel only after attending a specific training course and only if the dog has the psychophysical and aptitude features required for the rescue activity.

3 usar The U.S.A.R. (Urban Search and Rescue) project aims to improve the rescue activities in the debris following earthquakes, explosions, collapses or structural and hydro geological damages. The U.S.A.R. teams of the Fire Service carry out rescue operations in this kind of situations with an appropriate safety level and with highly developed methods, particularly as to the assessment of related risks, the localization techniques and the extrication of the victims. Such operations need to be particularly effective, prompt and quick. Rescuers must operate in such a way as to extricate the trapped victims as quick as possible, in order to facilitate their medical treatment and to avoid further complications or, even worse, death. Firefighters are equipped with specialized equipment such as vibraphones, thermal imaging infrared cameras, search robots, reinforced concrete cutting rotary saws and concrete saws, and must be trained to provide immediate basic life support (BLS). U.S.A.R. team consists of: - team leader - structure expert - two dog units - technical equipment technician - person in charge of the health service I

4 CBRN The Italian National Fire and Rescue Service is organized to cope with emergency situations due to the presence of hazardous materials, including CBRN emergencies related to the use of nuclear energy and biological, chemical and radiological materials. Hazardous materials are dispersed and moved and/or secured in order to curb the effects of the accident. The Italian National Fire and Rescue Service is equipped with a radioactivity detection network consisting of automatic stations for the detection, communication and processing of the data detected, also performing the environmental monitoring. The Provincial Central Fire Stations are equipped with motor vehicles (motor vans for transport of equipment, trailers for the technical decontamination), special equipment, personal protective devices and equipment for CBRN interventions. The Regional Units are also equipped with: trucks for the transportation of equipment for the pouring of hazardous material spills and technical decontamination, shelters for the decontamination of personnel, CBRN mobile labs, motor vans of the advanced command post vans (PCA).

5 telecommunications The National Telecommunication Service consists of a National TLC Centre located in Rome and 21 local centres scattered all over the national territory. The National TLC Centre carries out the following activities: planning, experimentation, testing and maintenance of new equipment and advanced communication systems including satellite broadcasting. The 21 Communication Centres scattered all over the national territory consist of specially trained operation personnel and of technical support personnel, in charge of the installation, maintenance and operation of provincial and regional radio networks, as well as of the equipment and installations located in the Provincial Central Fire Stations and Regional Directorates of Fire Service. The Fire Service TLC Centre is crucial for the performing of technical emergency rescue within the community: as a matter of fact, communicating means to be able of managing at any time the resources available, adjusting the response, reducing intervention times, moving resources from one theatre of accident to another directional radio installations (installation and maintenance carried out by Fire Brigade personnel) stationary radio installations vehicular radio apparatus portable radio apparatus - 20 mobile directional radio installations

6 SEAPORT AND AIRPORT STAFF The Italian National Fire and Rescue service ensures the firefighting service in 38 national airports by means of 3000 Firefighters by using 300 special vehicles specifically designed and realized for accidental sceneries involving aircraft, in order to save passengers on board. The service is guaranteed trough procedures and practices according to the international ICAO safety air transport standards as well as to the national laws. The rescue operations must be completed within few minutes from the accident. The vehicles used in rescue operations are characterized by high velocity, easy manoeuvrability, automatism and by a great extinguishing capacity system. The nautical rescuers, present in the most important Italian seaports, are ready for any kind of emergency occurring in the seaport area, for fire extinguishing service, saving boats and survivors (SAR search and rescue operations). With more than 900 rescuers deployed along all the Italian coasts (and to be further improved), the seaport Firefighters represent an important component of the Italian National Fire and Rescue Service. The presence of Firefighters in the ports must guarantee the fire rescue both on board and on the area of boats, as well as the general technical rescue service in seaport areas..

7 DIVERS AND AQUATIC RESCUE OPERATORS The diving rescue operators of the Italian National Fire and Rescue Service amounts to 400 units, dislocated in n u c l e i s p e c i a l i s t i c i 28 diving and aquatic rescue (NSS e A) centres. Their presence guarantees the operational rescue response in all the sea, lake and river environments, 24 hours a day. The diving rescue operator of the National Fire and Rescue Service is a basic component of the urgent technical rescue service work-chain, playing a decisive role in aquatic sceneries. The institutional tasks include person rescue and missing people search on aquatic surface or up to a 50 metres depth. The underwater rescue activity can regard people, vehicles, boats, planes, etc or the searching of bodies of evidence by legal authority disposition. In order to increase the surface rescue activity it has been developed, in these years, a training course to face the aquatic risk, creating a new professional operator, the aquatic rescuer. At the moment all over Italy about 400 rescue operators have been trained, who work on synergy with the diving rescue centres.

8 Helicopter units Rescue and support to the Provincial Central Fire Stations; aid and rescue to people in specific dangerous situations; fire watch and extinction by means of hoist hooked equipment; search of missing people; rescue and assistance to isolated settlements affected by local phenomena; transport of particular fire equipment; air detection of CBRN materials; flights related to civil protection activities. These are the tasks carried out by the Ciampino aviation centre (Rome) and by the 11 remaining flight divisions scattered all over the national territory, divided in 5 air regions. The helicopter crew consists of 2 pilots and 1 flight technician, supported by ordinary teams, by SAF (Rescue at heights and depths) personnel or divers, according to the missions to accomplish.

9 FIRE INVESTIGATION UNIT The search for the fire causes and the carrying out of investigative police activities are some of the institutional tasks of the Italian National Fire and Rescue Service. The expert-staff in charge of it, holds the office of investigative police. The NIA (fire investigation unit) personnel carry out on-the-spot investigations and evidence collecting in the framework of the investigative police activities. They operate in the most important, difficult and particular cases, on request of the Provincial Central Fire Stations or of the judiciary, but they can also intervene on their own initiative. In the framework of its study, research and analysis activities, aimed at assessing the causes of fires, NIA takes part in international working groups in order to develop guidelines on fire investigation. They cooperate on international programmes sponsored by the U.E. in the field of the forensic science.

10 DOCUMENTATION CENTRES 9,750,000 visits to the official web site in the first 6 days after the earthquake. It proved to be a very useful service to the population, giving real time information on the base camps location, on the joint coordination and operational centres, on the tent city and also on general interest phone numbers. Since August 2006 the accessibility of the web site has been enhanced and now any user can benefit from the stored information regardless of his/her physical or sensorial abilities. Every Provincial Central Fire Station manages its own Documentation Centre. The aim is to collect and preserve videos and photos useful for FS activities, from basic training to mass-media information and criminal police investigations, thus contributing to the activity of the National Documentation Centre sited in Rome at the Fire Service Basic Training School. The Fire Service avails itself of several communications experts present in all provincial fire stations. Through a series of courses organized at a national level, more than 160 RICs (Information and Communications Referents) have been trained. The web site: