Fairfax County's urban search and rescue team is returning to Virginia on Monday evening after a series of heroic rescues in Venezuela.

Virginia Task Force 1, sponsored by Fairfax County Fire and Rescue, deployed Friday, June 26, two days after magnitude-7.2 and magnitude-7.5 earthquakes struck Venezuela's northern coast near La Guaira state on Wednesday, June 24. The unit spent more than 10 days conducting search and rescue operations alongside Venezuelan authorities.

The team was part of a larger U.S. contingent. More than 300 American personnel and 23 search-and-rescue canines were deployed to Venezuela, according to the U.S. State Department. Rescue crews from Los Angeles and Miami are also returning to the U.S. on Monday, July 6.

The task force documented several confirmed saves during the deployment. A mother and her 9-month-old daughter were pulled alive from a collapsed structure, and both suffered only minor injuries, according to the rescue team. An AP photograph from Saturday, June 28, shows Fairfax County firefighters extracting a survivor from building rubble in La Guaira.

The U.S. Department of State highlighted another operation on X, describing how VATF1 responders reached a father and son who had been trapped for four days and carried them to safety. The task force also credited its trained dogs with locating survivors in tight, unstable spaces where human searchers could not safely reach.

American search-and-rescue teams were thanked by the US Embassy in Carcas on Monday.

"I want to thank them for their extraordinary work on the ground," the embassy wrote in a post on X. "Their courage and professionalism in Venezuela saved lives and brought hope in an extremely critical moment."

Scale of the disaster

The Venezuelan government reported Sunday, July 5, that the earthquake death toll had risen to 3,342, with more than 16,000 injured and more than 17,000 displaced. Nearly 200 buildings collapsed across the affected region. More than 3,300 international rescue workers from over 20 countries joined nearly 30,000 Venezuelan first responders in the operation, according to CNN.

The U.S. government committed more than $300 million in humanitarian aid, according to a State Department briefing.

What's next

No formal homecoming ceremony or press conference has been announced. Separately, Fairfax County police are investigating an unrelated arson at Virginia Task Force 1's training facility in Lorton.

Residents with information about the Lorton arson can contact Fairfax County Police at 703-691-2131 or submit tips anonymously through Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS.