ICE-SAR

Slysavarnarfélagið Landsbjörg or the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue (ICE-SAR) is a national association of rescue units and accident prevention divisions. Its member organizations consist of 99 rescue units, 70 accident prevention and women's divisions and 50 youth sections. Altogether the association has about 10,000 volunteer members and are present in most towns. Although the rescue teams function as a kind of public service, they are not supported or paid for by the government but by donation.

The Landsbjörg has roots going back to 1918 with the formation of a rescue team organized by women in the Westman Islands who sought to establish a lifeline for husbands working in the dangerous fishing industry. The Landsbjörg did not become a national institution, however, until after the Geysir plane crash of September 1950. Most of those on board managed to survive, but were stranded in the wilderness. After a failed rescue attempt by American military forces, a civilian force formed to organize a rescue on foot and ski. The drama of the event helped start a network of local rescue teams that sought to help in cases of similar emergencies.

ICE-SAR has about 100 rescue units, located throughout Iceland. They comprise over 3,000 volunteers who are always on standby for emergencies. The rescue teams are specialized in search and rescue both on land and at sea. To see to diverse tasks, the rescue teams are well educated in their fields and thoroughly trained. They strive to outfit their people to the highest standard, with both personal gear and expensive rescue equipment like cars, snowmobiles and boats. In recent years, specialisation within rescue teams has increased, making the work more purposeful: land groups, sea groups, diving groups, advance groups, high-angle rescue groups, search dog groups, etc. Also working within the association is a rescue team for international projects, co-operating with rescue teams in other countries, for example, when major earthquakes occur, as in Turkey in 1999.

ICE-SAR operates an international rubble rescue unit, manned by volunteers from the various search and rescue units in Iceland. The team first responded to an international crisis in 1999 when it assisted in rescuing survivors of the 1999 İzmit earthquake in Turkey.

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Wikipedia