SEARCH AND RESCUE ON URBAN AREA

Training
Natural and man-made disasters have always been the greatest challenges for emergency
services. When a disaster strikes, local resources quickly become overwhelmed, chaos is the
norm and people simply do the best that they can. In the early 1990s, the federal emergency
management administration (FEMA) created a national urban search and rescue response
(USAR) program to deal with these large-scale emergencies. 28 USAR teams were created in
strategic parts of the United States to performurban search and rescue. Known as a USAR
task force, a USAR team is fully equipped and self-sufficient for 72 hours and can be on the
road with 70+ team members in less than eight hours from notification. It does however take up
to 24 hours for the USAR task force to get on site, set up a base of operations and begin
working.
Local responders must be able to begin the response to collapse disasters during that first 24
hours. Naturally, urban search and rescue training is vital for local agencies that have the
potential for large-scale disaster.

The Essential Technical Rescue Field Operations Guide is comprehensive and includes a
detailed section on structural collapse. This greatly assists in your urban search and rescue
training. For example, the structural collapse section begins with a command checklist for
structural collapse and urban search and rescue.
The task level checklist helps rescuers organize rescue efforts with a systematic approach to
the rescue problem. The site will need to be assessed for hazards, potential victims and best
access points. A risk management profile must be developed in order to ensure rescuer safety.

The initial search begins with a visual search followed by a callout /listen search. Rescuers must
search from stable areas into unstable areas. Advanced search options like search dogs,
acoustic listening devices and thermal imagers can be a big help in locating victims.

Rescue in an unstable or collapsed structure requires emergency shoring. A cut team and a
shoring team can work together to create and place emergency shoring. The safety rule is to
build in the safe area and limit exposure to teams that are placing shoring.
Typically we stabilize the outside the outside of the structure with raker shores and then work
our way in with vertical shores. Spot shores can be placed quickly to stabilize the area and then
more substantial shores can be placed.

Since this is high risk low frequency operations, urban search and rescue training should be
conducted frequently. The Essential Technical Rescue Field Operations Guide is based on the
Corps of Engineers 2009 Shoring Operations Guide and it will assist you with your urban search
and rescue training

Urban

search

and

rescue (USAR)

- also

known

as Urban

SAR -

or US&R in the United States) involves the location, extrication, and initial
medical stabilization of victims trapped in structural collapse due to natural
disasters, mines and collapsed trenches.
The causes of USAR incidents can be categorised as accidental and
deliberate.
Structural collapse incidents can comprise unstable or collapsed structures in
an unsafe position. Usually collapse incidents leave voids inside the debris
that can result in numerous casualties trapped under large amounts of very
heavy and often unstable debris.
USAR services can be faced with complex rescue operations within
hazardous environment. Incidents experience shows that people are often
found alive many hours and days after rescue operations commence, and the
corresponding services should be planned accordingly.
USAR teams in different countries may be organised in a variety of ways, but
they are often associated with firefighting services.

The increasingly complex methods and procedures, and the modern ability to
bring in teams from far afield has brought a very strong drive for
standardization within nations and internationally, most obvious in the role of
the United

Nations' International

Search

and

Rescue

Advisory

Group (INSARAG) in large natural disasters.

Urban search-and-rescue is considered a multi-hazard discipline, as it may be
needed

for

variety

of

hazards

including earthquakes,cyclones, storms and tornadoes, floods, dam failures,

technological

accidents,

terrorist

activities,

and

hazardous

materials

releases.

TYPES
USAR task forces are often categorized for standardization. Depending upon the
classification of the task force, there can be close to 70 positions. But to be sure a
full team can respond to an emergency, USAR task forces have at the ready more
than 140 highly trained members. A task force is often a partnership between
local fire departments, law enforcement agencies, federal and local governmental
agencies and private companies. In the United States, these can be federally
endorsed teams or state teams activated through mutual aid agreements. In
England, the responsibility for USAR lies with local authority fire and rescue
services. Equipment supplied to them is part of a government initiative known as
the New Dimension programme which provides the training and equipment.
USAR Teams bring together, in an integrated response: highly trained personnel
from the emergency services along with engineers, medics and search dog pairs,
specialised equipment effective communications established methods of command
and control logistical support procedures to request international assistance if
required under an international search and rescue framework. The training that
teams receive is an ongoing procedure combining classes from the local fire and
rescue services and government agencies.

TEACHNIQUES
In a disaster situation the goal of a search and rescue operation is to rescue the
greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time, while minimizing the risk
to the rescuers. In the United States, the organization of USAR operations is now
standardized under the National Incident Management System, which was in
scattered usage before Hurricane Katrina but has since become the standard under
[Presidential Directive 5. Katrina proved the difficulty of coordinating multiple
disaster response teams from around the country when some used ICS and some
used their own local organizational models.

The Three Phases of a USAR Operation

Size up:
Gather facts and make decisions on the course of action. For example, what types
of structures are involved, the extent of damage, the layout of the building(s)
involved, what hazards are present (such as downed power lines, natural gas leaks,
flooding, animals, hazardous materials, or a structure susceptible to additional
collapse during the rescue), and what rescue personnel and equipment are
available. Structural damage can be categorized as light, moderate, or heavy.
Sizeup is an ongoing process which should continue during all phases of search and
rescue so operations can be modified as needed.

Search
Searchers should use a buddy system or two-in, two-out system and have backup
teams available. Techniques for searching for potential victims are based on
identifying possible locations of victims, or areas of entrapment. Areas of
entrapment inside damaged structures are called voids. There are several types of
voids, such as the pancake void (multiple floors of a building have collapsed
diagonally onto each other), and the lean-to void (a single wall or floor has
collapsed diagonally against another wall). Voids can also include spaces where
victims may have entered for self-protection during a disaster - such as under desks
or in bathtubs or closets. Once the potential areas of entrapment have been
identified and the potential number of victims sized up, search operations should
commence in an orderly manner, beginning with verbally calling out for victims to
identify their location if possible, and searching using a systematic search pattern.
Possible search patterns include triangulation (using three searchers approaching a
potential area of entrapment from three different directions), a right/left search

pattern (one team searches the left side and one team the right side of a building),
or a bottom-up/top-down search pattern. Searchers should stop frequently to listen
for noises or attempted communication from victims; often this can involve all
searchers stopping activity at specified periods of time to listen. In situations where
multiple structures are searched such as after a hurricane, the outside of buildings
can be marked using the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or
INSARAG marking systems to indicate buildings which have already been searched,
the results of the search, and to avoid duplication of search efforts.

Rescue
Trapped victims are removed and medical aid rendered as necessary.
The triage system can be used to prioritize medical aid with those needing
immediate attention aided first. Removal or stabilization of debris is often necessary
to remove victims. This can be accomplished using leveraging to lift the object,
or cribbing (constructing a rectangular wooden framework known as a box crib
underneath the object to be stabilized). Leveraging and cribbing can be combined.
Victims who are ambulatory can then self-extricate, or victims can be removed
using lifts, drags, or carries. Removal of victims should be done so as to avoid any
further injury: Where any neck or back injury is suspected, the cervical spine should
be immobilized first before attempting to move victims, and dragging should be
avoided in situations where the presence of debris (e.g., broken glass) would cause
further injury by doing so.

PROJECT
IN
P.E 4

Submitted by:

Submitted to: