Urban search and rescue

Urban Search and Rescue (USAR, also known as Urban SAR - or US&R in the United States) involves the location, extrication, and initial medical stabilization of victims trapped in structural collapse due to natural disasters, mines and collapsed trenches.

The causes of USAR incidents can be categorised as accidental and deliberate.

Structural collapse incidents can comprise unstable or collapsed structures in an unsafe position. Usually collapse incidents leave voids inside the debris that can result in numerous casualties trapped under large amounts of very heavy and often unstable debris.

USAR services can be faced with complex rescue operations within hazardous environment. Incidents experience shows that people are often found alive many hours and days after rescue operations commence, and the corresponding services should be planned accordingly.

USAR teams in different countries may be organised in a variety of ways, but they are often associated with firefighting services.

The increasingly complex methods and procedures, and the modern ability to bring in teams from far afield has brought a very strong drive for standardization within nations and internationally, most obvious in the role of the United Nations' International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) in large natural disasters.

Urban search-and-rescue is considered a multi-hazard discipline, as it may be needed for a variety of hazards including earthquakes, cyclones, storms and tornadoes, floods, dam failures, technological accidents, terrorist activities, and hazardous materials releases.

USAR task forces are often categorized for standardization [1]. Depending upon the classification of the task force, there can be close to 70 positions. But to be sure a full team can respond to an emergency, USAR task forces have at the ready more than 140 highly trained members. A task force is often a partnership between local fire departments, law enforcement agencies, federal and local governmental agencies and private companies. In the United States, these can be federally endorsed teams [2] or state teams activated through mutual aid agreements. In England, the responsibility for USAR lies with local authority fire and rescue services. Equipment supplied to them is part of a government initiative known as the New Dimension programme which provides the training and equipment.

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