Mounted search and rescue

["irvin lichtenstein" <ilichten1@verizon.net>]

Disaster cross training should already be done in most SAR units. Community
Emergency Response Teams (CERT) training outline is basically what we used
to call Advanced First Aid and now call Wilderness First Aid (splinting,
carrying, shock for longer waits for outside help) and turning off
residential utilities at the meters. In PECO Energy territory you cannot
pull the electric meters because they are sealed so the best you can do is
enter the property and switch off the main breaker or pull the fuses. There
is a quarter turn valve on gas meters, which may be inside or outside the
property. The same for water, except that meter isolation valves are rarely
closed in homes and often don't work. There are either no curb cocks or they
are buried and you need a street key anyway. So you can't effectively secure
street leaks or most properties.

Working in rubble or in a city as opposed to on a trail in the forest is
just another working environment. If the footing is lousy (loose, shifting,
full of puncture possibilities) it is no place for a horse regardless.  I
have run into low energized wires in the woods as well as in the city. And I
know dog handlers that bought Kevlar booties for their dogs. Anybody make a
Kevlar or steel sole plate overshoe for a horse? We wear steel toes and
soles to fight fires and people frequently get stuck in the foot in nice
houses.

It all comes down to risk and benefit-- use the resource with the least risk
and the most benefit.

Irv Lichtenstein