California Task Force 7 is a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) team based in Sacramento. The team is made up of over 200 members from Sacramento Area Fire agencies, including 37 members from Metro Fire. Team members are highly trained and certified, using some of the latest rescue techniques and equipment in collapse rescue, heavy rigging, logistics support, hazardous materials response, medical care, communications, canine search, technical search, and water rescue. 

Task Force 7 was established as one of the original US&R teams in the early 1990’s. US&R Task Forces were originally designed to respond to structural collapse caused by earthquakes. Over the past three decades, the scope of US&R response and capability has grown to include disasters and catastrophes, both man-made and natural, incident support functions, and response to preplanned events. Task Force 7 has deployed a team or provided personnel for Incident Support Teams in several noteworthy national responses: 

•    1995 Oklahoma City Bombing 
•    2001 September 11th Terrorist Attack 
•    2005 Hurricane Katrina 
•    2005 Hurricane Rita 
•    2008 Hurricane Gustav 
•    2010 Earthquake Haiti Port-au-Prince 
•    2012 Hurricane Sandy 
•    2014 Oso Washington Mudslide 
•    2016 Hurricane Matthew 
•    2017 Hurricane Harvey 
•    2017 Hurricane Maria 
•    2018 Hurricane Florence 
•    2019 Hurricane Dorian 

Over the last five years, FEMA has activated Task Force 7 at least once a year, and with the increase in natural disaster damage, there have been some years with multiple deployments. A full team deployment, consisting of 80 members, will include a specified percentage of Metro Personnel.