Tonight I am pulling a shift at the Johnston Fire department. This has turned into that magical day that happens every fall where rain unexpectedly turns the highways to ice, and motorists traveling at 70+ miles per hour find them selves hurtling side ways, back wards, and upside down across multiple lanes of traffic.
Now that things have settled down my company officer tossed me the latest copy of Fire Engineering magazine. He told me that there was an article I needed to read. Turning to the Volunteer corner I found the following title. "Forming a Ground Search and Rescue Team". The article features the Blue Lake Township Fire Department (MI) BLTFD has taken it upon themselves to train and respond to Search and Rescue requests. They have used NFPA 1670 as their standard, and they have built a box card style response structure including searchers, search managers, CERT team members, and K-9 resources. It appears to be a very well thought out and executed team.
All things considered it is a great article. I would love to see a few FD's in my area get together to establish a ground based SAR team. Very cool guys.
