The United Kingdom International Search and
Rescue (UK-ISAR) is the agency now responsible
for responding to overseas incidents on behalf
of the UK Government. It consists of 13 teams
from different Fire Services across the UK who
are on call to provide the official UK
Government response to international disasters
where search and rescue skills are needed.
All 13 teams train regularly and take part in
exercises to maintain and develop their skills
and ensure they can respond effectively when
called upon.
Having recently undergone a restructure, UK-ISAR
needed to once again achieve classification as a
Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team under UN
guidelines, meaning it is certified to deploy to
disaster zones where significant structural
collapse has occurred with all of the skills and
equipment to provide a self-sufficient response
for up to 10 days.
To
achieve this accreditation, a week of search and
rescue exercises was staged at Fort Widley, near
Portsmouth, a Napoleonic fort. ISAR teams from
across the UK worked together on an intensive
scenario involving collapsed buildings and
casualties trapped in confined spaces. A UN
accreditation team was there throughout to
evaluate the performance.
