Teams from 20 Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue stations convened at the YMCA’s Camp Elphinstone on Howe Sound over the weekend of May 23 to 24 for the largest search and rescue exercise yet staged by RCMSAR. The lead organizer for SAREX 2015 was West Vancouver (Station 1), assisted by the local Gibsons and Halfmoon Bay units.
In total, 140 individuals were involved, and participating crews were presented with a series of complicated search and rescue taskings. Scenarios included search for missing persons, boats on fire, shore landings, stabilization and medical extraction of severely injured victims (the make-up artists excelled themselves producing gruesome wounds), towing in challenging situations, recovering patients from the water, and handling of distraught persons.
These challenging and realistic scenarios are designed to put crews into high stress situations where individuals must work efficiently as a team, focusing on the safety of their own crew and boat, while properly caring for victims and keeping the rescue coordination centre properly advised on the situation via radio communications.
The SAREX also included a variety of on-shore training such as care and handling of hypothermic patients, emergency hull repair, fire pump operation and maintenance as well as participating in adrenaline-raising climbing wall and high wire exercises.
Later this month RCMSAR units from Gibsons, Squamish and West Vancouver will be participating in a joint exercise in Howe Sound with the Canadian Coast Guard.
