Let’s look at a very specialised area of search dogs, Victim Recovery, sometimes called human remains detection dogs, Cadaver dogs or ‘body dogs’. Several Police forces have in house Human Remains Detection Dogs (HRD Dogs) alongside several Fire Services. In the voluntary Search & Rescue / Recovery sector there’s only a very small number of organisation’s focusing only on this discipline. SEARCH + DETECTION DOGS are one of these few agencies.  They are a nationwide organisa

Founded in 1942, Casualties Union is a UK-based charity dedicated to improving emergency preparedness. We do this by providing volunteers to play the roles of casualties, survivors, and bystanders in simulated emergency situations. The addition of live actors into these training scenarios adds a human factor, and means that emergency responders and medical professionals are better prepared to deal with casualties in real-life crises. ​ Our Volunteers The core of our charity i

This October, when the rivers were full of Swaledale rain, we held one of our water CPD events.  Swaledale MRT hosted & North of Tyne & Cleveland MRTs brought extra water techs (MOD 3). ​ This gave us a good 25 in water technicians plus team leaders. We’ve recently started looking at a more joined-up approach to our water (and other areas) training. Historically, we used to train each discipline independently, water, rope, medical search etc.  However, we’ve concluded that we

​There's a storm coming. But what does that really mean? For me as an autistic adult it just means another today, but for most people it's an event or series of events out with their normal daily coping mechanisms and an exception to the run of the mill events of that day. It has been quite a trying year for me, persecution, abuse, sickening authoritarian pressure like I hope you have never seen or ever will. We wake up and go again regardless because we all hope that today m

Throughout August Bank Holiday, Scottish Charity, Specialist Search Dogs held their annual Multi agency training event.  This event consisted of working through a range of different training protocols, exercises and lectures, for multiple emergency services, including themselves.   Within their large-scale event, they had guest speakers for theory-based lectures, to support their handling and training, as well as a range of trainers attending for continuous training for their

Question 1 ​ How did you get into army reserves, and how long have you been involved? ​ Answer After serving in the regular forces for over 12 years but wanting a career change, going into the reserves was a bit of a no-brainer. In many ways, I wanted to still serve my country but also, I wanted a career in Aviation. By joining the reserves, I could do bit of both. At the time of saying this I’ve done around 3 years in the Reserve Army. Question 2 What made you join the reser

Community Resilience Volunteer Service are a group of like-minded individuals who give up their free time to support their local community in times of need. They are equipped to respond to requests for help from the 999 services, local and national government, community councils, along with utility companies and other voluntary agencies. With support from their Ops Vehicle, they can work off-grid providing communications via their UHF Repeater, mobile internet and welfare fac

Question 1 What made your join as a retained firefighter? ​ ​ Answer There are a few reasons for me. I’m very fortunate to have made good progress in my initial career, and I’ve always believed that once you are secure at an individual level, there is a duty to look for ways to contribute to the world beyond yourself. Although my day job is pretty academic, I’m certainly the kind of person who needs a much more physical outlet. I always feel I’m at my best when things are hap

Question 1 How did you come about your role within Specialist Search Dogs and what does it entitle? ​ Answer I have always had a passion for search and rescue operations and a deep love for working with dogs. My journey with Specialist Search Dogs began when I realised the critical need for specialized canine units in victim recovery missions. With my background in search and rescue, along with extensive training in dog handling, I co-founded the charity with my friends Colin

Span Anchors are normally used where a Y-Hang or Multi anchor into a BFK would be too much of an angle if your only anchors were very close to your edge of danger. But your anchors MUST be very unquestionable sound as the forces on them because the angle is over 120 degrees more 160/170 even. Below is a typical Span Anchor set up using two ropes to create four lines across reducing the force on the ropes. ​You need 3 slings on each anchor ideally, you could use 2 but it then

I’m sure most people have seen the float to live campaign by the RNLI, but if you haven’t you should!   If you attend the beach regularly, or you have a favourite spot by the water’s edge, following these simple tips could save your life if you end up in the water. Even the strongest of swimmers could end up in difficulty for one reason or another so being able to stay calm and remember “float to live” will give you the best chance possible.   It’s human nature to panic when

Serve On humanitarian volunteers will this week fly to central Europe to respond to an imagined earthquake in the Balkans as part of a final assessment exercise for would-be search and rescue responders from across the UK. The exercise is the culmination of two years of training for the latest candidates to join the Wiltshire charity’s International Response Team and they have been given the opportunity to show off their skills at the world-class SAR International Training Ce

When it comes to water rescues as CROs we have many techniques and various pieces of equipment at our disposal to carry out effective rescues of casualties who are in or around water. First and foremost, we always want to talk to the Casualty who’s in the water. Giving verbal encouragement or instructions to assist themselves, e.g. “swim to me”, “hold onto that”, “reach for the throw line.” Where possible the rescuer stays on safe ground and uses recognised equipment to reach

Serve On is a humanitarian response charity whose highly-skilled volunteers are on stand-by at all times to respond swiftly when natural disasters strike, at home and abroad. Our work constantly transforms lives, including the lives of our volunteers, as we build resilience in people and in communities. Our USAR-trained International Response Team (IRT) members have a proud history - stretching back more than 30 years - of providing emergency help in times of global catastrop

West Cumbria Search and Rescue was established 8 years ago.  The team are a specialist search and rescue asset to help blue light agencies and relieve suffering and distress in the local communities.  They support the local emergency services by providing a search and rescue service for those in need in Cumbria or other out of area requests if requested. West Cumbria SAR are tasked by agencies and provide specialist water & flood rescue along with search capabilities. The ser

The Technical Rope Rescue world has lots of different Pulleys by lots of different manufactures, some single, double, fixed, swing cheek, swivel etc. A rule of thumb to follow would be if it’s a single pulley then you a single line of course, but I have seen a double pulley used with only a single line, which in the pictures below you can see introduces rope rub on the side plate which could fail the rope or fail the plate of the pulley. Some single pulleys now allow for side

​JESIP and EmergencyLocate have partnered to bring innovative enhancements to the JESIP app when viewing and navigating to an incident location. We are excited to support our commanders and responders with EmergencyLocate’s SAR Deploy solution which helps to pass location data from the JESIP app to a range of mapping and navigation apps without the need to further input any coordinates or address information. The intent behind this integration is to speed up deployment times

Specialist Search Dogs is a registered charity offering a 24-hour call out with a multi-disciplined team. Trained to the highest national standards to enable a professional search dog capability to missing person scenarios. Ready to assist the Emergency Services and Category 1 responder to Rescue or Recover. ​ Specialist Search Dogs is fully equipped to attend demanding search situations in the UK and overseas. The organisation has charitable status (Scottish Charity Number S

​In this section we will look at edge difficult 90 degree edge transitions with a stretcher in the horizontal & vertical positions. An edge roller will always reduce friction making make haul easier (other manufactures are available) but perhaps on a lower we would require more friction by using an edge matt for example: Horizontal Stretcher raises with an attendant. ​Attendant is attached by the long tails from a DAB or D-Bowline. Casualty on safety line with an ASAP as well

The Coastguard Association is the charity dedicated to supporting Coastguard personnel and their families in their time of need. Founded in 1976 and with full charitable status, the Coastguard Association, often referred to as the CGA, has the full support of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency and covers the entire United Kingdom and the Isle of Man. ​ The CGA has one primary aim – to help any serving or retired Coastguard personnel and their families in genuine times of hardsh