SARSCENE 2012

First the team: Herb Paetzold, D4, John Crowe, D1, Peter Windfeld, D1, Katie Carter, D3, Dan Pellerin, D2.  The team first met on Friday night before the games for introductions and a team strategy..   the team met the following morning and took a shuttle to Humber Bay park  site of the games.  Ten teams took part  in the challenge.  Present were teams from Winnipeg,(2) Thunder Bay, Guelph, CASARA Niagara, HUSAR Toronto - all ground SAR units.  CASARA being airborne,  Team C & A was the only marine based SAR team.
 
The Competition:  there was six events with a 45 to 60 min time limit,  
Event 1,  had three parts, skill testing questions, knot tying and line toss ; questions like, spell SARSCENE phonetically, what is the opposite of hyperthermia, explain LKP and so on,  knot tying was behind the back tie   a  figure eight with a bit. line toss was with a throw bag to a lifering as a target set in the water about 40 feet away
Event 2, SARSCENE planning.  The scenario was a lost senior with Alzheimers and also diabetic.. we had to plan a search of Humber Park given a certain number of assets, police, park personnel and volunteer,  some land base and some marine base..  with a FLIR equipped helicopter arriving 4 hours later..  the search was to start at 930pm
Event 3 was a ground search for item laid along a 200 yard trail, 21 items were placed along the trail and we had to locate as many as possible,  items like lipstick, gloves, bracelets, lighter, etc items that could belong to lost person in the woods
Event 4;  transport an injured person manikin, up a hill.   The person was in a stretcher, we had to ensure that he was ready for transport and secured,  we were give a line, 100 ft and two carabineers(hooks) we had to use the line as and anchoring point/assist  and a carry the victim up the hillside  the hill was about 15-20 feet high at a 20 to 30 degree angle,  this was very physical and it had to be done within a timeframe, points were award for technique, skills, team work, communication and time
Event 5,  the team had to start a fire, boil an egg and build a shelter for four people for one night  using only items found on-site.  We had matches that we were able to use. All within a set time.
Event 6, First aid,  the scenario was a young female that had crash her ultra light aircraft and we had to treat accordingly.  Very realistic  with scene hazards, and makeup that was so real,  broken bones, compound factures, lacerations and squirting blood.  We had thirty minutes to stablelize and treat the victim while EMS was enroute.
 
  The skills we learn in marine SAR helped us with most of the challenges and the rest we had to "wing it".  Overall I feel we did very well and most of all, we worked very well together.  No one was there to prove anything but rather we all drew on our skills and made it work..  We got a good taste of what is involved in ground SAR and we brought our marine SAR skills to the challenge and learned new skills
  A great day and good fun for all  

Dan Pellerin.  

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