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In 1978, ATF developed a national response capability to assist Federal, State, and local investigators in meeting the challenges faced at the scenes of significant arson and explosives incidents. This capability, the National Response Team (NRT), consists of four teams organized geographically to cover the United States. Each team can respond within 24 hours to assist State and local law enforcement/fire service personnel in onsite investigations. Although the NRT has been used predominately to assist in the investigation of suspicious commercial fires, it has also been activated to the scenes of criminal bombings as well as explosions at explosives and ammunition manufacturing plants, legal fireworks factories, and illegal explosive device manufacturing operations. During 1995, the National Response Team was activated 21 times to 19 incidents. There were 18 responses to fires and three responses to the Oklahoma City bombing. These incidents involved the loss of 173 lives, injuries to 544 individuals, and $220.3 million in property damage. An ATF trained accelerant detecting canine was utilized on eight responses. Since its inception, the NRT has been mobilized 340 times. These incidents involved the loss of 439 lives, injuries to 2,342 individuals, and over $4.3 billion in property damages. The teams are each composed of veteran special agents having postblast and fire origin-and-cause expertise; forensic chemists; explosives enforcement officers; fire protection engineer; accelerant detection canines; explosives detection canine; intelligence support and audit support. The teams work alongside State and local officers in reconstructing the scene, identifying the seat of the blast or origin of the fire, conducting interviews, and sifting through debris to obtain evidence related to the bombing/arson. Further complementing the team's efforts are technical, legal, and intelligence advisors. Moreover, a fleet of fully equipped response vehicles strategically located throughout the United States is available to provide logistical support. |
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