The County of Los Angeles Fire Department’s (LACoFD) international urban search and rescue (USAR) team, known as USA-2, has been activated by the U.S. Department of State to respond to Venezuela in the wake of the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes that hit the country’s center.
USA-2 departed from the LACoFD Technical Operations facility on June 25, 2026, at 5:30 p.m.
Two major earthquakes struck central Venezuela on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, causing buildings to collapse with 188 initially reported deaths, more than 1,500 injured so far, and hundreds of people reported trapped in the rubble according to early reports.
USA-2 is comprised of 71 members, six canine teams, and includes 84,000 pounds of equipment.
Venezuelan Earthquakes June 24, 2026: The deployment comes in response to one of the worst natural disasters in Venezuela’s modern history.
Two powerful earthquakes struck the country’s northern coast late on Wednesday, June 24, within roughly a minute of each other, a 7.5- and 7.2-magnitude pair that the U.S. Geological Survey ranked as the most powerful to hit Venezuela in more than a century. The epicenter sat near the densely populated port city of La Guaira, just north of the capital, Caracas, where dozens of buildings collapsed and entire neighborhoods were left in ruins.
As of Friday, June 26, Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodriguez reported at least 589 people killed and roughly 2,980 injured, figures officials expect to climb sharply as crews dig through the debris. National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said earlier that about 250 structures had been damaged or destroyed and roughly 200 people remained trapped beneath collapsed buildings. The USGS issued a red alert for the disaster, warning through its predictive modeling that the final death toll could plausibly exceed 10,000.
Rodriguez declared a nationwide state of emergency, closing Caracas’s international airport, suspending metro and rail service in affected areas, and shutting schools for the rest of the week. Search-and-rescue teams have converged on the disaster zone from around the world, including units from Mexico, Chile and El Salvador, alongside the two elite U.S. teams, from Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los Angeles County, now racing to reach survivors inside the critical 72-hour “golden window” that follows a major quake.
