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Subject: Mounted search and rescue
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- From: "IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN" <ilichten1@verizon.net>
- To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [MSAR] training response from Dana in Kansas
- Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 01:03:54 -0500
Don’t put the cart ahead of the
horse – subject training is important but unless you can run an emergency
response organization or have someone (like a local government agency) do it
for you, you cannot function in the current emergency response world.
NIMS is a national, standardized, incident management system. Each level of
government is required to implement it as part of the (federal) National Response
Plan so we all talk the same on those federally mandated interoperable radios.
In my area a tanker is a lot of water on wheels, in most of the wildfire
community it is a airplane that can dump a lot of water on a fire. There
is a disconnect if I ask for a tanker task force here and if I ask for one in
California—here I get 5 or more trucks with several thousands of gallons
of water each in them and in California I would get 5 DC-10’s flying over
dumping 120 000 gallons of red dyed water (and the bill). NIMS is
supposed to avoid this by having everybody use the same terms and methods and
paperwork. Basic training is free at www.fema.gov
for 100, 700, 800 series courses. In many states the 300 and 400
level classroom courses are also free. You will need infrastructure of your own
or access to it on a reliable basis. This means radios, pagers, and other
equipment to command your people in the field. Maps will also be useful,
If you are going to be a true emergency response organization, and search is an
emergency to quote ERI and NASAR, you will need a 24/7 dispatch center
(preferable a government owned one so you don’t have to pay for
it). The team I am chief of is dispatched by a county PSAP/EOC (9-1-1)
center using the county owned alpha paging system. We have 2- 800 MHz
radios to talk to the county on and 10- 150 MHz radios for internal use and to
talk to other state agencies. The dollar value of this minimal gear is
close to $20,000 plus 17 pagers the county has given us so far. Depending on the state laws you will need
insurance. You may have to acquire workman’s comp, public
liability, and various other coverages including bonds for your treasurer and
officers. Do not contact horse show or riding club insurance companies—you
will need the same coverage a volunteer fire company has. Then there is critical mass. To be
effective you have to be able to respond a reasonable number of riders and if
needed command staff. Field teams are usually 3 but never less than 2,
and 3-5 teams should be an initial response. You may need only a liaison person
if someone else is in charge of the search or a full command staff if your
organization is the incident commander. You will also need some people to
watch and keep track of your stuff, etc. Figure you need at least 3 times the
people in the organization capable of responding as you need to respond.
If you have a lot of retired or self employed members this number may
vary. After a year of intensive theory and practical training we can
reliably put out 2 field teams (6 riders) and 2-3 command post people.
This is about halfway to our goal for field response. Lastly, is what subject training you will
need. First aid and CPR is nice and usually required by OSHA. You can
execute a provider agreement with the Red Cross so you can train your own
people to their certification standards for about 10% of the cost of doing
through community courses. You have to find out if your state has any search
standards or for that matter assigns search to a government function.
Those are the standards you have to train to. There are standards
published by the National Fire Protection Association, the Mountain Rescue
Association, NASAR, the ASTM, and various state search and rescue councils or
associations. They may or may not have the force of law in your state. And
some of these may be dependent on what kind of organization you form. If you
are classed as an There have been many discussions and
presentations concerning organizing an emergency response organization and
managing one, mostly in fire trade journals since so many fire organizations
are volunteer. There is even a Irv Lichtenstein From:
msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of ALLEN SNYDER |
-
[MSAR] training,
Joan Pottinger, 07/10/2007
- Re: [MSAR] training, IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN, 07/11/2007
-
Re: [MSAR] training response from Dana in Kansas,
ALLEN SNYDER, 07/11/2007
- Re: [MSAR] training response from Dana in Kansas, IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN, 07/11/2007
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