Facility Focus
The Collapsed Structure Rescue Training Site
NASA's Ames Research Center not only focuses on innovative technologies for use in space, but it also has concerns on land.
Through its Collapsed Structure Rescue Training Site, Ames is providing the emergency-response community with a beneficial and elaborate training facility. The Collapsed Structure Rescue Training Site falls under the auspices of the Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART), an all-hazard federal emergency response and recovery team based at Ames´ Moffett Field, Calif., facility. The collapsed structure is one of many components of DART. The structure itself has four major parts: a large concrete rubble pile with built-in voids and rooms, a simulated concrete collapsed structure, a 30-foot-long twin-engine aircraft "crashed" into a portion of the structure and large concrete loads for lifting and moving. One of the structure´s uses is an annual advanced rescue class sponsored by DART that attracts participants from around the country.
Emergency-response groups using the facility can position the structure in a number of ways to set up various training scenarios.
The structure includes both above-grade and basement rooms, which can be used to simulate different hazards. It can be set up for scenarios over a 24-hour period or for search-and-rescue teams to train in a collapsed-structure environment. The structure also includes a rubble pile that provides emergency responders with the opportunity to train with breaching equipment in an unstable, offset environment. The rubble pile can also be used for search training and practice with stabilizing loads in a dynamic environment.
The facility is used by members of DART and is open to all members of the emergency-response community.
For more information, please visit the DART Web site at http://dart.arc.nasa.gov.
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