'We're not stopping': Virginia rescue team searches for quake survivors in Venezuela

By — Amna Nawaz Amna Nawaz By — Dan Sagalyn Dan Sagalyn Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/were-not-stopping-virginia-rescue-team-searches-for-quake-survivors-in-venezuela Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio The search and rescue efforts in Venezuela continued Wednesday, one week after a double earthquake struck that country. Fewer and fewer survivors are being found and an official said nearly 2,300 people are now confirmed dead and tens of thousands remain missing. Amna Nawaz spoke with Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Daniel Gajewski. His team has 79 people and six dogs in Venezuela. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Amna Nawaz: The search-and-rescue efforts in Venezuela continued today one week after a double earthquake struck that country. But fewer and fewer survivors are being found. A Venezuelan lawmaker today said nearly 2,300 people are now confirmed dead. Tens of thousands remain missing. And medical professionals say the biggest danger now is treating survivors wounds and infections. I'm joined now by Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department Battalion Chief Daniel Gajewski. His team has 79 people and six dogs in Venezuela. Chief Gajewski, welcome to the "News Hour." Thanks for joining us. Daniel Gajewski: Absolutely. Thank you. Amna Nawaz: So give us a sense of what it's like on the ground. I understand you and your team are in La Guaira, which is one of the hardest-hit areas. What is it like there and what's your focus? Is this still search-and-rescue or more recovery at this point? Daniel Gajewski: So we're still in the search-and-rescue phase. We do not determine whether or not we go into the recovery phase. That's going to be the local government. So currently we have many recon teams out in the area. We're looking for survivors all the time, both day and night. We work 24-hour shifts. We're always out there looking, and when we identify where survivors are located, we stay there and then we start working that pile until they come out. At this point, currently, USA-01 has removed five live victims. We are not stopping there. So currently we have four rescue teams out identifying and triaging different buildings in the area that have collapsed that have potentially viable victims. Amna Nawaz: And I know yours isn't the only team on the ground from outside doing this kind of work. How many strong are you and where else are you seeing the other teams coming in from? Daniel Gajewski: Teams are coming from all over the world. I believe we have over 27 countries that are represented in this response and over 53 international teams. So you head out into some of these affected areas and you see teams from all over helping out and trying to provide their service, their level of expertise to the local governments and the local fi