Fire Chief Niles Ford said an evaluation team has commended Nebraska Task Force One (NE-TF1), the urban search and rescue team based at Lincoln Fire and Rescue, for being well managed and organized. Ford said a nine-member peer evaluation team from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently completed an intensive two-day review of all aspects of the task force.

“The team went beyond saying that NE-TF1 is fully operational,” said Chief Ford. “They said several of our practices would be recommended for use by other task forces throughout the country.”

NE-TF1 was specifically recognized for its training program to meet commercial drivers license requirements; pharmaceutical cache management procedures; comprehensive personnel record filing system; and management of individual member contracts and memoranda of agreement.

In its written evaluation report, the Operational Readiness Peer Evaluation Team said, “The exceptional attention to detail is evident to the team. This team is clearly integrated into the day-to-day operations of the Sponsoring Agency.”

The team made only three 3 recommendations:

• Continue to recruit, roster and train new task force members to increase the number of deployable resources.
• Continue to increase the number of certified disaster canine search teams with an emphasis on locating teams closer to Lincoln.
• Continue to pursue improved warehouse facilities.