Toronto HUSAR Takes Off! BY CAPTAIN MIKE STRAPKO, TFS PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER
C
anada Task Force 3 (CAN-TF3) Toronto Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR) is a selfsustaining team with specialized equipment to operate technical search and rescue tactics in significant structural collapse emergencies that have mass casualties. CAN-TF3 achieved a significant milestone by becoming the sole national team that verified its airlift deployment readiness in partnership with Canadian Forces (CF). At 0600 hours on 21 November 2008, CAN-TF3 mustered at the Toronto Police Service Public Safety Unit (TPSPSU) to check and sign for a duffle bag and knapsack of cold weather gear and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The team clambered on the Toronto HUSAR bus that took us to Pearson International Airport. From there, CAN-TF3 boarded a CF Hercules 50
on their way to test their ability to respond to a major disaster by participating in the largest multi-jurisdictional disaster response exercise held since last year. Exercise Trillium Response involved all levels of government and simulated a massive ice storm in north-western Ontario, similar in scope to the challenge that devastated eastern Ontario and QuĂŠbec in 1998. The challenging exercise involved more than 1,500 participants from the Ontario and Canadian governments, 25 municipalities and three First Nations communities, the province of Manitoba, and non-government organizations.
The CF Hercules touched down in Thunder Bay where CAN-TF3 boarded City transit buses that brought them to a huge desolate grain elevator at the dockyards along Lake Superior. Nineteen military pallets had arrived earlier after being airlifted via a CC-177 Globemaster III. This is the largest CF cargo plane at about three and a half times bigger than a Hercules. Each pallet held four skids of equipment that were se-