Burnaby Urban Search & Rescue – 2026 Venezuela Earthquakes

In June 2026 two powerful earthquakes caused catastrophic damage in northern Venezuela. Burnaby Urban Search and Rescue quickly sent a 7-member volunteer team of professional firefighters, police and first responders, along with trained search dogs, to assist with rescue and recovery in the hardest hit communities.

The scale of devastation was immense. The Burnaby team searched collapsed buildings, working alongside local Venezuelan and international crews to locate and extract people trapped in the rubble. In addition to trained search dogs, they used specialized tools to detect victims imprisoned deep within collapsed structures.

Team leader Ryan Berry will describe his team’s experience preparing for and participating in this international search and rescue mission. He will also discuss the lessons they carried back to turn that experience into readiness to respond to the next disaster, whether at home or elsewhere.

Founded in 2011, Burnaby Urban Search and Rescue is a non-profit, community funded team of 35 volunteers and a unit of highly trained search K9s. They have search and rescue experience with destruction from natural disasters – floods, earthquakes and hurricanes – in diverse settings including Nepal, the Bahamas, Türkiye, Thailand, High River, Haiti and Jamaica.