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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] Una's Questions
- Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:59:58 -0500
As a search manager on an active high
priority job I will use anything I can get my hands on, if only to hand out
coffee and doughnuts or do the data entry. However, in an area where all the
emergency services except police are essentially volunteer I cannot put
unorganized volunteers in the field due to several considerations: Insurance, unknown training level, and
infrastructure. Other than some career park personnel there are no highly
experienced search personnel in an area that gets maybe 12 missions a year and
a few more routine walk-a-ways which last maybe an hour. The difference between a professional
response and an amateur response is training and experience. If the local
VFD finds walk-aways in an hour every month they are sufficient to handle that
type of incident. You should never issue a “you all come”
request. The ability to manage the incident and use the resources
properly depends on the management team having an idea what is coming and what
it can do when it gets there. With a four month old incident few
professionals will change their schedules and haul halfway across the state for
a mission with dubious training value if they have other activities scheduled. Further,
involvement of certain organizations may lead to conflict. In this area there is a ground pounder
team that got lots of toys but little infrastructure that was compatible with
other responders and paid for it by scheduling up to 34 public appearances a
year. This left little time for training, reduced their field response drastically
and they lost their credibility. In SEPASAR most of our mounted members
are long time horse people, many ride endurance events all over the country and
we try to schedule a training event once per month. In some case this means
riding response and safety for a local equine event, others are classes at
local vet schools, fire academies, etc. They get to use the radios, navigate,
and care for their horses in the field. We have members who
don’t train and they don’t get pagers. Hopefully, our appearance at
a few events will raise public awareness and donations. We try to limit fundraising events to one
or two a year because taking care of the animals is time consuming and often
leaves little time for anything else with backyard horses. And sometimes it doesn’t matter
anyway. About 2 hours ago Sharon Hill FD buried a 19 year old member who had
all the training and was a certified fire fighter when the front doors and
lintel of a residential garage fell on him and his team. Protective
equipment not withstanding they were all burned. There are two volunteer firefighters
still in the burn unit from a previous incident, not far away from this one,
where a new garden apartment had the second floor collapse onto the first,
burying them under debris. There is a difference between the various
emergency responder communities, and you have to earn each others’
respect. We did have a bareback rider show up at a
training exercise, she bought a saddle. Irv Lichtenstein From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Karen Nesbitt |
-
[MSAR] Una's Questions,
Karen Nesbitt, 10/05/2007
- Re: [MSAR] Una's Questions, IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN, 10/05/2007
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