Badlands search and rescue still looking for members

Times Reporter

 

It was just about a year ago when Rockyford resident and volunteer firefighter Scott Campbell proposed creating a Badlands Search and Rescue (SAR) team. 

Things have been moving along at an admittedly slow but steady pace, and once financing is finalized and in place Campbell predicts things will speed up. 

“We have 14 people that are signed up right now that are members with search and rescue. I’ve got a few more people that are probably going to be joining fairly quickly here, they’re showing a lot of interest,” said Campbell. 

“We’re based out of Rockyford at this time, though we’re going to be serving Wheatland, Starland, Kneehill east towards the special areas, (and) potentially down to Brooks. A lot of that will be determined once we have our operational status. But we are going to be covering a pretty good-sized area.

“We’ve been doing some training over the past few months here. We’ve done a little bit of training on first aid, a little bit of training on incident command system, knots and rope training, so just some real basic stuff right now.”

Campbell anticipates the Badlands SAR will be operational in April 2013, but until then they are unable to assist with any missions. It doesn’t mean things will be dull for the current members, there is more training scheduled. 

In September there will be a navigation and GPS mapping course, and in October a four-day wilderness/first aid course which includes an overnight scenario is being planned. 

“Basically part of it will be this scenario where we’ll do a search for about half an hour to an hour looking for a victim or victims depending on how many teams we have and then once we locate these people we’ll be caring for them throughout the night. No matter what the weather is we will be out there,” said Campbell.

In the spring they will be doing the basic search and rescue course. Once that is completed then they will have all of the training up-to-date that they need to and will need to take care of a few more details before getting operational status. 

Campbell is still hoping to get 20 to 40 people to help really get the Badlands SAR off the ground. Members are expected to commit to a minimum of six training or search scenarios per year. Also there is a financial commitment. 

Each member is expected to provide their own basic search and rescue pack, which will hold everything a person needs to survive 24 to 48 hours, and what will be needed on pretty much any mission. Campbell said the pack could cost $1,000 to $1,500.

Still not sure what exactly Search and Rescue is all about and if you would like to join? No worries, Campbell said anyone interested in coming out to a training session can e-mail him. 

“We do ask people to sign a waiver that are coming that aren’t members for obvious reasons, but people can come and at the very least see what we’re doing. Depending on what sort of training that we’re doing will depend on the level of participation that we’ll allow,” said Campbell.

“If we’re doing some fairly technical training we’re not going to put somebody into a harness and reppel down the side of a cliff per se that has no experience, but we do certainly welcome people to come out and observe what we’re doing and hopefully take part in at least a bit of the training to get a taste for it.”

More information about Badlands Search and Rescue can be found on Facebook or Scott Campbell can be reached at badlandsar@gmail.com.