WIDLEY WEEK 2004
UK Fire Service Urban Search & Rescue Dog Teams

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Urban Search and Rescue teams from across the UK are gathered in Hampshire for a week long workshop, culminating in a two-day exercise. Organised for the UK Fire Services Search & Rescue Team (UKFSSART) and involving teams that will respond to overseas disasters, the event is being hosted by Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service and supported by the Department for International Development.

The event had been organised into 7 separate workstreams, e.g. Command, Technical Search, Shoring etc.  Each workstream was led by instructors from the UK and from as far away as Washington and Los Angeles. Over 100 participants each day where involved, the event culminated in an extended rescue exercise on the Friday and Saturday of the week.

One of the 7 workstreams was SAR dogs were teams from NGO's groups and the Fire Service trained together over the week.  The week was very successful for all dog teams concerned.  The younger dog teams gained a lot of new knowledge and confidence, which will support them through their next stages of training in the months to come.   All our operational dog teams also gained from this week of consolidation training, and more specifically the complex exercise scenarios which were put together for the final exercise.    

~ Further details of this training week can be found at UKUSAR & UKFFSART web sites ~

Photographs from the training week.