Foothills Search and Rescue (FSAR) conducted a training exercise around the Millarville Ag Society grounds on Nov. 2 for the organization's specially trained volunteer members.
The scenario involved locating four missing persons, and put to test various specialized skills the group is trained in, including equine search techniques, lost person behaviour, tracking, first aid, and rope rescue.
Four members of the community volunteered to pose as the missing persons, lying in wait for search teams – in some cases with a simulated condition or injury that required special care or extraction.
During a scenario, an FSAR search manager is called by the tasking agency (typically the RCMP), who then sends a callout to members to put them on standby, followed by activation if missing subjects are not found during RCMP investigation. The team arrives at the staging point – the Millarville Racetrack – and are briefed in the mobile command post.
Using trackers, as well as lost person behaviour models, the search manager uses GIS systems to map out search areas. Then they send out search teams of four or five members, including a team lead, a first aider, a navigator, and a radio operator. The search areas are programmed into their GPS units, and the teams move across their areas in a sweeping pattern, looking for evidence and calling for the missing persons.
When subjects are found, they may be in physical or emotional distress, and teams set about dealing with those conditions, while communicating with the command post to coordinate extraction. In some cases, a specialized team such as the rope rescue team or equine team are needed to navigate physical obstacles.
Foothills Search and Rescue member Murray Miller checks over his equipment outside of the mobile command vehicle during a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)
Dave Culbert and Nicole Jones, members of Foothills Search and Rescue's equine team, embark on a search segment in a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)
Foothills Search and Rescue search manager Dean Thompson plans segments for search teams in the mobile command vehicle during a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)
Foothills Search and Rescue search manager Dean Thompson plans segments for search teams with Rob Rossie in the mobile command vehicle during a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)
The new Foothills Search and Rescue mobile command post is utilized in a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)
(L-R) Foothills Search and Rescue members Bruce Russell, Robert-Lee Dickinson, and Rebecca Branchaud embark on a search segment in a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)
Dave Culbert and Nicole Jones, members of Foothills Search and Rescue's equine team, embark on a search segment in a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)
Foothills Search and Rescue member Murray Miller looks through brush for signs of a missing person during a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)
Foothills Search and Rescue member Jeremy Koehler speaks with a witness outside of the mobile command post during a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)
Foothills Search and Rescue member Sean-Paul La Croix communicates with search teams over the radio in the mobile command vehicle during a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)
Members of Foothills Search and Rescue carry a stretcher through brush to the location of a missing subject, supported by the equine search team in a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)
Foothills Search and Rescue rope rescue team member Jeremy Koehler gets lowered over a ledge to an isolated riverbank where an injured subject lies in wait during a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)
Foothills Search and Rescue member Dave Culbert holds a line suspending a rope rescue team member lowering a stretcher down a riverbank during a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)
With the subject now secured in a stretcher, Foothills Search and Rescue rope rescue team member Jeremy Koehler guides it up from an isolated riverbank where the person was found during a training exercise near the Millarville Racetrack on Nov. 2. (BRENT CALVER/Western Wheel)Disclosure: OkotoksToday.ca photojournalist Brent Calver is a member of Foothills Search and Rescue. He was asked by the FSAR member planning the scenario to act as media during the course of the exercise.
