Urban Search and Rescue

History

Hampshire has had a USAR team for many years starting in 1991 when we were part of the original formation of the United Kingdom Fire Service Search and Rescue Team (UKFSSART).

This team is a group 13 UK Fire Brigades who each provide a few specially trained volunteers to respond to overseas disasters on behalf of the UK Government. Hampshire has since provided trained volunteers and equipment for this whenever requested.

The Hampshire Team has been very proactive in developing their own capability and subsequently played a leading role in the development of UKFSSART. We have run a series of national training events and exercises in Hampshire for several years now. These have developed into major events with over one hundred delegates attending along with expert instructors, not only from Hampshire but elsewhere in the UK and from overseas.

INSARAG

Hampshire’s 2006 event was used by the UN to assess the overall UK team as part of a new international classification system. Hampshire facilitated this process, which must include a realistic exercise encompassing all aspects of deployment and operations of a full ‘Heavy’ USAR team according to International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) guidelines:

"INSARAG aims at establishing standards for international USAR teams and methodology for international coordination in earthquake response"

The event involved a week long event with a round the clock 80-hour practical exercise being observed by a UN appointed team of international assessors.

The outcome was successful with the UK team being accredited as the highest category team possible, only the second country to ever achieve this.

New Dimension Project

Hampshire’s leading position was also utilised when USAR became a major part of the New Dimension project. We were heavily involved in advising the urgent interim provisions put in place immediately after 9/11. We turned a 2002 training trip to the US into a research mission to inform the initial development of UK USAR.

This included advising on equipment gaps, training requirements, procedures to adopt, training providers and the design of the training facilities eventually built at the Fire Service College, Moreton-in-Marsh. Our recommendations were followed almost exactly to provide the initial interim national USAR response.

UK USAR development

We have continued to be at the forefront of the rapid development of UK USAR that has followed. The New Dimension project has frequently used Hampshire personnel as technical advisors or a test bed. Hampshire was one of the first four brigades to be equipped with the New Dimension USAR modules and associated training.

National working groups

As part of the current and future management and development of the emerging national USAR structure a series of eleven national Working Groups have been established to carry out the immense amount of work needed to fully establish and maintain a national USAR system. Hampshire has at least one member on each of the eleven groups and currently chairs seven of them!