A Guide to the United Kingdom Fire Service Search & Rescue Team

Background

Historically, the British Fire Service has been responding to disasters overseas for a number of years. In the Mexico City (1985) and El Salvador (1986) earthquakes, a team from the London Fire Brigade were sent with thermal imaging cameras. In Armenia in December 1988, teams including London, Kent and Hampshire responded on search & rescue missions. These efforts were not coordinated and action depended upon individual brigades.

Following the UK response to assist the Kurdish population in northern Iraq (1991), as a consequence of the Gulf War, the then Minister for Overseas Development, Lynda Chalker, announced a new initiative designed to improve the effectiveness of any future British relief effort.

This was to be achieved by introducing additional measures to provide:

 a rapid assessment of the requirements in a disaster situation
co-ordination of the British Government relief effort
the creation and deployment of skilled teams

A steering group of Chief Fire Officers was set up, under the chair of one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Fire Services, with the objectives of developing a co-ordinated British Fire Service response to overseas disasters. The steering group developed the protocols & guidelines under which teams would be utilised or mobilised.

Item 13 of Dear Chief Officer Letter 9/1992 sets out the full arrangements for the UKFSSAR Team.

History

In 1996 and again in 1997, the Team sent personnel to the Caribbean island of Montserrat in response to an appeal for help following the sudden increase in volcanic activity and the subsequent threat to life and property on the island. The task for both missions was to train and equip a search and rescue unit formed from members of the island's emergency services.

Conditions on the island, and dust and ash from the Soufrere Hills volcano made work difficult and hazardous. However, close co-operation between the UKFSSART personnel and DFID (Department for International Development) staff meant that both missions were very successful. This was proved in 1997 when, following a huge eruption, the local search & rescue teams rescued over 30 people and recovered 20 bodies from areas of the island struck by pyroclastic flows from the volcano.

 

In 1999 members of the Team were despatched to Macedonia as part of the UK response to the refugee crisis precipitated by the Kosovo conflict.

The initial mission was to set up and then operate an air-bridgehead at Skopje airport in Macedonia. The airport was situated just south of the Kosovo border and was the focus of a vast number of relief flights from all over the world bringing supplies to the refugee camps being setup nearby.

Teams spent a considerable time at Skopje Airport unloading, transporting and overseeing a huge airlift of emergency aid from all over the world, as well as working within the camps on their days off, setting up tents and water supplies.

As the deployment was extended, all Brigades within UKFSSART contributed personnel, teams working on one month secondments to Skopje under the control of the DFID.

Working in very difficult conditions, often manually unloading large cargo aircraft, they succeeded in achieving a logistical success, earning much praise from other organisations in the field. Follow this link to a letter from the UN WFP Special Representative.

 

In August 1999, two teams were mobilised, including command elements, dog teams and a doctor, in response to an earthquake in northwestern Turkey. The teams, working with colleagues from the IRC (International Rescue Corps) and from CANIS, spent six days carrying out searches using dogs, acoustic and thermal imaging equipment in a number of towns including Aydin, Yalova, Duzce and Cinarcik.

Conditions were extreme, the dust from the collapsed buildings combining with the 40 degree heat to make the working environment very unpleasant. As a result of the searches the UK contingent were responsible for five rescues and a large number of body recovery operations.

 

In November of the same year a second team with command and medical elements was despatched to Turkey following an earthquake centred on the town of Duzce. Deployed again with IRC and CANIS, the team, thanks to transport from a RAF Hercules and RN Commando helicopters, was one of the first international teams to arrive in the stricken town.

Living and working in appalling conditions, temperatures below freezing, the team searched for four days and assisted in the recovery of at least one live victim and a large number of bodies.

Personnel from West Sussex, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, GMC and Cheshire attended the disaster, retuning via Istanbul and Nice to RAF Lyneham.

January 2000 saw a team of 15 UKFSSART personnel along with a Field Commander despatched to the flooding disaster in Mozambique. The mission was to undertake any rescues required and to transport doctors and medical aid by small inflatable boats. The boats proved to be ideal to operate on the rivers because of the shallow draught that they could operate in.

The team, working closely with personnel from the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) and the IRC (International Rescue Corps), were based in the town of Beira and operated on the Rivers Buze and Save.

Navigating using GPS, the boat crews brought aid to a number of remote villages as well as providing equipment and training for the local emergency agencies.

In January 2001, the massive earthquake in the Gujarat province of India saw UKFSSART personnel working in extreme conditions in the town of Bhuj. Mobilised with teams from the IRC and Rapid UK, the team flew to Ahmedebad and then transferred by road to Bhuj.

Prior to arrival one member from each team had been identified to form a command support team and in the absence of any other international arrangements a command and communications centre was established within the camp close to a police station. Other international teams later joined the rescue efforts and operated under the UKFSSART command umbrella.

One of the first international teams to arrive in India, the UK Team, in a period of 5 days, rescued 7 people and located over 500 bodies.

On 21st May 2003, the biggest earthquaketo hit Algeria since 1980 measuring 6.7 on the Richter Scale struck near the Bourmerdes region. An UKFSSART Team comprising personnel from Lancashire, Grampian, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Greater Manchester brigades were deployed as part of a large UK SAR contingent. The team included search dogs, a medical contingent and had access to specialist search equipment including search cameras and sensitive listening devices.

About 3000 people were reported killed and over 6000 injured as a result of the earthquake. A United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team and USAR Teams from all over the world converged on Algiers, including the French, German/Luxembourg, Belgium, British, Czech and Turkish, Polish, Koreans and South Africans. Due to building construction methods, the types of collapse and adverse weather, few live victims were found.

Structure

There are thirteen brigades in the United Kingdom that have contracted to provide an international search & rescue team within UKFSSART. Typically, each Brigade team consists of between 12 and 20 personnel and therefore approximately 150 - 200 firefighters make up UKFSSART. The team operates a 3-group rota and therefore, at any one time about 40 - 60 firefighters are on immediate standby duty.

UKFSSART is controlled by a policy or steering group of Chief Fire Officers and is co-ordinated by the Fire Service Inspectorate that operates within the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) of the UK Government.

The Team is registered with the United Nations as a source of rescue and search resources and is available for immediate deployment 365 days-a-year. For details of the component parts of UKFSSART please view the 'BRIGADES' page on the site.

When help is required


UKFSSART is the official search & rescue response of the UK Government and will only respond & send teams if a request has been made at government level. UKFSSART cannot and will not respond uninvited, as experience has showed that such help often causes problems for the host country. The request has to be made by the government of the affected country or the United Nations representative in that country.

Once any request for assistance is received and approved (usually by the Department for International Development) mobilisation is organised and co-ordinated by the Command Support Centre of the London Fire Brigade.

If there is any doubt about the need for deployment, a member of the UKFSSART steering group may be sent to the area to assess the needs of the community & deployment will be made on their instruction. Alternatively, DFID may wait for confirmation of the need to deploy from any UNDAC team tasked with reconnaissance and disaster assessment.

Despite these safeguards to prevent unnecessary deployment and waste of resources, all of us within UKFSSART are aware of the imperative for quick and effective action when lives are at risk. UKFSSART has shown reliably and consistently that we can deploy within a few hours to any place in the world and bring effective resources to bear upon any type of disaster.

What we do

Once at the scene, our priority is to locate & rescue missing persons. Once this task is complete, we may, on approval, become involved in humanitarian tasks. These may be such things as putting up tents & constructing other buildings, unloading vehicles or aircraft, providing fresh water systems or transport infrastructure, administering medicines, carrying out first aid and other disaster relief tasks.

Specifically the UK Fire Services Search and Rescue Team are required to be able to undertake the following tasks:

To search for, locate and rescue casualties trapped by structural collapse. To undertake medical treatment of such casualties until transfer to an appropriate medical agency.
To search for, locate and rescue casualties trapped within confined spaces, at height or in other locations having difficult access and egress. To undertake medical treatment of such casualties until transfer to an appropriate medical agency.
To be able to live and work in adverse conditions and a hostile environment and to be capable of being self sufficient for an extended period of time.
To be able to communicate with, train and teach other personnel in the operational procedures and techniques associated with a variety of search and rescue tasks.
To be aware of the requirements for the provision of emergency aid in a disaster relief situation and to be able to positively contribute to such a mission.

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