Mercer Island Fire Department Lt. Steve McCoy and a battalion chief are currently deployed to Maui, Hawaii, as part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) Response System following the recent devastating wildfires in the area.

McCoy is assisting with search and rescue efforts as the team supports the Maui Police Department on Lahaina, utilizing specialized canine-training to ensure the safety of search dogs and their handlers as well as deploying camera and listening devices, according to the city of Mercer Island. The local battalion chief’s name was not released at press time.

According to a FEMA press release, more than 1,000 federal responders, including 350 search and rescue team members and K9 teams, are deployed in Hawaii to aid in the operations. The release adds that FEMA has approved more than $5.6 million in assistance to nearly 2,000 households, including more than $2.3 million in initial rental assistance.

Lindsay Kirkegaard of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, who is search team manager for Washington Task Force One in Maui, said in a FEMA video that dogs are essential in the search and rescue operations.

Tacoma Fire Department’s Todd Magliocca, task force leader of Washington Task Force One in Maui, added in the video: “This by far, just with the sheer size and density is at another level for us. There’s a lot of work to do, and our folks are slowly but steadily working through that to see if we can find or detect any human remains.”

The US&R Response System is a national program that organizes federal, state and local partner emergency response teams as integrated federal disaster response task forces, and FEMA’s 28 US&R task forces can be deployed to disaster areas when needed, according to the FEMA website.

“The city is grateful to Lt. McCoy for assisting these critical efforts in Hawaii,” the city noted in a press release.

For more information on the US&R Response System, visit https://tinyurl.com/2j8yuae3