Support CA-TF3 Canine Teams: Enhance Their Impact

Co-organized

Johnny Wu and Harold Schapelhouman are organizing this fundraiser to benefit California Task Force 3 Foundation.

Tax deductible

WHO WE ARE

The National Response System sends local firefighters and specialty emergency workers to emergencies all over the nation. CA-TF3 is one of the 28 Teams in the National Response System.

CA-TF3 is made up of firefighters and emergency workers from San Francisco Fire to San Jose Fire and from Milpitas Fire to Central Santa Cruz County Fire and is Sponsored in Menlo Park Fire.

With this fundraiser we hope to provide better support to our Canine Teams.

OUR ASK

1. $100k, to better support the Canine Teams we already have: We feel it is necessary to increase the stipend provided to canine handlers as this dollar amount has not changed in over a decade. Canine Handlers currently receive $300 a month per dog to offset the cost of fuel and travel to maintain our Canines. If possible, we would like to double their stipend. To do this we need $50k a calendar year and would like to raise funding for at lease two years for a projected cost of an additional $100k.

2. $145k, to increase the numbers of Canine Teams: For canines obtained from the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation we provide up to $15,000 for training our members to be prepared with a canine. Up to $4,000 per Canine Team is provided once per Team to attend the Canine Search Specialist Course. We also provide up to $6,000 for each Canine Team to attend a Canine Certification Evaluation. This means a Live Find Canine Team can cost the Task Force as much as $35,000 and a Human Remains Detection (HRD) Canine Team can cost the Task Force up to $10,000. Three (3) Live find Canines Teams are expected to join the Task Force this year and we would like to recruit an additional four (4) HRD Canine Teams, the cost on such an improvement to our capability would be $145k.

Live Find Canine Teams. The goal is to be three deep in every position. We have four (4) deployment positions for Live Find Canine Teams on a Type 1 deployment, meaning our goal is to have twelve (12) Live Find Canines. We currently have nine (9) Live Find Canine Teams and have identified three additional canines to pair with canine handlers to make three additional Canine Teams by this summer. This will bring our numbers up to twelve (12) Live Find Canines. There are twenty-eight (28) Teams within the United States and if they all me the twelve (12) Canine Teams we would have three hundred and thirty six (336) Live Find Canine Teams in the United States and as of December 29th 2024 the Nation had three hundred and fifteen (315).

Human Remains Detection (HRD) Canine Teams. While Live Find Canine Teams are securely rooted within the National Response System, Human Remains Detection (HRD) Canine Teams are not. The National Response System recognizes the need for HRD Canines but allows each Task Force to determine how many they are going to support. Currently CA-TF3 supports two (2) HRD Canine Teams. These two (2) teams are part of the ninety (90) Certified HRD Canine teams that make up the response capability in the United States. We would like to triple that amount of HRD Canines Teams on our Task Force.

3. $200k, to better equip our Canine Teams for Success: Our Canine Teams work best in pairs with a manager and at least one pair of spotters. We typically deploy them with at least one Medic and possibly a HazMat Specialist. This means while in the field we typically have five (5) to seven (7) personnel in a group to support two (2) canines along with everyone’s gear and dog crates. Vehicles are in high demand in disaster areas, and we would like to be able to purchase two (2) new high roof, extended, 4x4 Transit Passenger Vans to support Canine Operations. These vans have been appropriately specified and are $72k without tax and with taxes, radios and light packages they are roughly $100k each. We would like to purchase two (2) for a total cost of $200k.

BACKGROUND

The Menlo Park Fire Protection District proudly sponsors California Task Force 3 (CA-TF3) Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Team. CA-TF3 is a local team that responds regionally, statewide and nationally as part of the National Response System.

As the sponsoring agency, the Fire District has the responsibility of managing the team and ensuring it is able to respond to any incident it is requested to do so. CA-TF3 is a specially trained and equipped US&R Task Force consisting of 17 participating agencies and approximately 40 civilians. CA-TF3 has made up of over 210 members who are available to respond to emergencies.