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Urban Search & Rescue in the UK
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The UK Fire Service Search and Rescue Team (UKFSSART) has components supplied by 13 UK Fire and Rescue Services. Each service undertakes to provide a 6-person team of search and rescue specialists. The team work a rota system ensuring that at least 36 search and rescue specialists are available at any one time for overseas deployment. Specific groups also provide command, logistical and medical support in order to ensure that the team is self-sufficient and meets all the requirements of the INSARAG system.
Structure
There are thirteen brigades in the United Kingdom that have contracted to provide an international search & rescue team within UKFSSART. Typically, each Brigade team consists of between 12 and 20 personnel and therefore approximately 150 - 200 firefighters make up UKFSSART. The team operates a 3-group rota and therefore, at any one time about 40 - 60 firefighters are on immediate standby duty.
UKFSSART is controlled by a policy or steering group of Chief Fire Officers and is co-ordinated by the Fire Service Inspectorate that operates within the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) of the UK Government.
The Team is registered with the United Nations as a source of rescue and search resources and is available for immediate deployment 365 days-a-year. For details of the component parts of UKFSSART please view the 'BRIGADES' page on the site.
When help is required
UKFSSART is the official search & rescue response of the UK Government and will only respond & send teams if a request has been made at government level. UKFSSART cannot and will not respond uninvited, as experience has showed that such help often causes problems for the host country. The request has to be made by the government of the affected country or the United Nations representative in that country.
Once any request for assistance is received and approved (usually by the Department for International Development) mobilisation is organised and co-ordinated by the Command Support Centre of the London Fire Brigade.
If there is any doubt about the need for deployment, a member of the UKFSSART steering group may be sent to the area to assess the needs of the community & deployment will be made on their instruction. Alternatively, DFID may wait for confirmation of the need to deploy from any UNDAC team tasked with reconnaissance and disaster assessment.
Despite these safeguards to prevent unnecessary deployment and waste of resources, all of us within UKFSSART are aware of the imperative for quick and effective action when lives are at risk. UKFSSART has shown reliably and consistently that we can deploy within a few hours to any place in the world and bring effective resources to bear upon any type of disaster.
© ISAR 2009