LA Firefighters, Search Dogs Return From Nepal Rescue Mission

After combing through the rubble of Nepalese buildings devastated by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, a Southern California-based search-and-rescue team this weekend returned to Los Angeles.

The USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team was sent to Nepal a day after the April 25 earthquake, which killed thousands of people, and assisted with a large May 12 aftershock. Made up of Los Angeles County Firefighters, the team helped pull a teenage boy from a collapsed building five days after the initial shaker.

"The team spent 19 days in Nepal searching for victims in the Kathmandu City area, and has completed its mission," LACFD Fire Chief Daryl L. Osby said in a news release.

Most of the elite 57-member team returned Saturday to its base at the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Technical Operations Facility in Pacoima. Seven more team members, plus six search-and-rescue dogs, flew into LA Sunday.

"For these dogs it’s not only (about) finding the victims, but also not finding victims. (We’re) able to know that we could leave there with confidence that we left nobody behind," said Dennis Clark, one of the rescuers. "It was amazing experience, the Nepalese people were very resilient, very friendly. It was amazing to see how quick they were back to some normalcy for them."

The team is mobilized to assist in large catastrophes, including recent deadly earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand.

However, one rescuer from California who was deployed to Nepal separate from the USAID team did not come home.

Eric M. Seaman, a Marine working on a rescue mission died in a helicopter crash, the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed Sunday. The helicopter crashed in the mountains on May 12.