UK Search and Rescue Experts

[Chil1234]

They helped in NZ and 60 or so are heading off for Japan now... but why do we have that many experts in the UK on earthquake search and rescue techniques when, to the best of my knowledge, we don't have much of a history of earthquakes? Understand they are probably fire-fighters 'IRL' as it were but have they ever been deployed in the British Isles, does anyone know?

I dont know, but i am very grateful to be living in a geologically stable area. we have no tectonic plates, not typhoons, no hurricanes, no wild weather of any sort. :) incredibly grateful for all that.

Search and rescue teams work well regardless of the event which caused the initial collapse.

They are firefighters with specialist knowledge and they're trained to deal with collapsed buildings, train crashes, and so on. As meditrina says, it's not the cause of the collapse, it's the consequence that they deal with. The term earthquake search and rescue is sloppy journalism.

We do get earthquakes, tornados, hurricane-force winds, storm surges, in the UK, but they're usually either moderate or short-lived.

Here's a link to the BBC report about what UK is sending.

I knew someone who went out to Sri Lanka to assist in victim identification and burial. Grim job and I admire him enormously for what he did.

That's a very informative link, meditrina, especially about the Shelterbox.

I know someone who joined a recognised medical charity mission, but at the very last moment. A colleague in the same hospital and specialty was due to go but fell ill at the eleventh hour. My friend volunteered to go in his place. It wasn't an emergency situation, but did involve some extremes of poor health and deprivation. It did have an effect on him and took him quite a while to recover.

Have they ever leapt into action in the UK, does anyone know?

Difficult to say - here's a link from Manchester Fire Brigade about UK USARs and what they do. It lists the places they've deployed overseas, but not within UK (presumably as they'd be counted simply as part of the UK emergency services response when they call in reinforcements from around the country for floods, explosions such as Buncefield and the like.

"USARS" = "ISARS" [wunk]

Don't forget that for a long time the UK was subject to the terrorism of the IRA. Many of these services are a legacy from those days. Searching for bodies in rubble isn't new. But think of the collapsed rail tunnel in Bucks a few years ago, Manchester bombing, July 7th bombing in London. We definitely need them!

chil1234 they are in action in the UK every week for building collapses, floods etc. Every fire service has specialist SAR teams.

They were utilised in Glasgow following a factory that collapsed a few years ago killing 12 people. Most Police Forces have search and rescue dogs who detect human life/bodies. We are lucky to have a very organised system.

Eddie and Keela...i think....were 2 of the dogs taken to Portugal in the search for Madeleine Mcann.

amazing dogs!