RACE TO SAVE LIVES IN JAPAN: Murrieta Resident Deployed as Part of Urban Search and Rescue

A Murrieta resident is part of the highly-trained Southern California urban search-and-rescue team now in earthquake-and-tsunami ravaged Japan, where thousands are feared dead and untold numbers are trapped in quake-damaged buildings.

Mark Gajda, 40, of Murrieta, is a Los Angeles County firefighter-paramedic and engineer who deployed Saturday to Japan with California Task Force 2, L.A. County Fire Inspector Don Kunitomi confirmed to Banning-Beaumont Patch on Sunday.

As many as 10,000 people are feared dead in northeast Japan since the 8.9-magnitude temblor struck Friday off the coast of Sendai. Fears of nuclear contamination are among the anxieties there, and here in Southern California as family members try to keep up with news of California Task Force 2.

"Mark's deployment to Japan is somewhat bittersweet," Gajda's mother, Christine Gajda Hester said in a message Sunday to Banning-Beaumont Patch. "He is a dedicated firefighter who was trained to save lives. He loves his job and the feeling of accomplishment when he can be a part of a rescue.

"But Mark's wife is fighting a battle with cancer here at home," Hester said. "Like I said, bittersweet."

Gajda was on the Southern California search team when they responded to the catastrophic 7.0-magnitude quake in Haiti in January 2010. He was among a group of 13 rescuers who helped save a woman who survived six days inside a collapsed building, Hester said.

The woman sang "Don't be afraid of death" as rescuers lifted her out of the rubble on a backboard, a moment captured on video and broadcast around the world.

The 70-member Urban Search and Rescue Task Force includes rescue specialists, emergency room physicians, structural engineers, heavy equipment specialists, search dogs and handlers, hazardous materials technicians, and communications personnel.

California Task Force 2 flew Saturday from Los Angeles to Alaska and then to Japan, more than 5,500 miles west of Murrieta.