Gainey joins other elected leaders to tout expanded Pittsburgh-area search-and-rescue unit

Had Pittsburgh’s Fern Hollow Bridge pinned people under the wreckage when it collapsed in 2022, local first responders would have had to wait for a highly specialized search-and-rescue unit from Philadelphia to help.

“If anyone was trapped under the rubble of that bridge, they would’ve had to wait 12 hours,” Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said Friday.

No one was killed or trapped. But lessons were learned.

“The collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge showed us we had to do something immediately,” Gainey said.

With $6 million in newly allocated state aid, Gainey and a bipartisan group of elected leaders gathered in a South Hills warehouse to announce the creation of the region’s new Urban Search & Rescue Unit meant to respond to bridge collapses and other major disasters in the greater Pittsburgh region.

It will complement its counterpart in Philadelphia.

The new unit, based in a rented space in Carnegie, trains and deploys first responders to handle everything from saving people from collapsed buildings to tackling major disasters, such as the train derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio.

Bipartisan legislation in Harrisburg authorized the unit and funds it with money from the state’s 2024-25 budget, officials said. Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the legislation last week.

There has been a search-and-rescue unit in the Pittsbugh area since 2002 when first responders formed one in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. About two years ago, the unit expanded and became more highly trained.

Now, with the state funding, officials said it will receive even more resources and training and be able to handle the most severe emergencies in the western half of the state. The Philadelphia team will handle the east. Both units can respond, at a governor’s direction, to out-of-state emergencies.

Since 1989, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has established 28 task forces similar to the one being formed in Western Pennsylvania.

Each boasts at least 70 specially trained members that conduct search-and-rescue operations in 12-hour shifts during major disasters, FEMA said.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle backed legislation authorizing the expanded Pittsburgh unit. Friday was their victory lap.

“This is about building consensus — and that’s what we’ve done here,” state Sen. Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, said.

State. Sen Camera Bartolotta, a Washington County Republican, and others also touted bipartisan support for a bill to improve treatment for first responders with what they called “post-traumatic stress injuries.”

Shapiro also signed that measure into law last week.

“These are the individuals who rush in when we rush out,” Bartolotta said. “We can’t turn our backs on them when they need our support.”

State Rep. Dan Miller, the Mt. Lebanon Democrat and majority whip who led Friday’s press conference, noted elected leaders were gathering just days after voting ended in a divisive presidential race.

“This is how we get things done,” Miller said. “A fire doesn’t care what yard sign you have on your lawn. And neither do our first responders.”