Ah, the sound of a jack hammer in an enclosed room.
It's noisy, dirty and dusty, and may well be the sight and sound that will save your life some day.Members of an urban search and rescue team fired up jackhammers Monday as part of a three-day bloc of training designed to hone their skills.
It was a multitude of teams like this that dug through the devastated rubble of the bombed out federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, searching for victims in the country's most horrific terrorist attack.
The ability to surgically plow through the concrete debris of a crumpled building is vital, said David Vialpando, a commander of one of the team's search and rescue squads.
Organized in 1991 under the umbrella of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Utah Task Force 1 is made up of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County firefighters, as well as doctors, engineers and members of the Rocky Mountain Search and Rescue Dogs.
Across the country, there are 27 federally sponsored teams of rescue workers who are specifically trained to enter collapsed buildings and operate victim location devices.
The three-day training, which took place in the old 3rd District Courthouse scheduled for demolition this week, was also an opportunity to promote a group Vialpando said many residents don't know exists.
"FEMA did a national search and decided Salt Lake City could benefit," he said. "We're really lucky."
The training in the vacant building allowed team members to take the jackhammer to a wall that had been spray painted with a green letter A.
Members like Trevor Haycock with the Salt Lake Incident Response Team tackled the equipment, obliterating the paint from the wall as chunks of plaster and concrete were decimated.
"I think this training is neat," Haycock said afterward. "I've learned quite a bit as a result."
Vialpando said the equipment is used to bore through rubble in such a way so a careful search can be made for victims.
"It becomes more time consuming and technical that way, but it is ultimately safer."
The training will come in especially handy in the event of a large-scale earthquake along the Wasatch Front, Vialpando said.
"We are going to get hit here, and when it happens, it will devastate Salt Lake City," Vialpando said. "It is not a matter of if, but when."
Salt Lake's team has about 100 members, but Vialpando said they want the membership at 160.