Beirut Blast Response
August 10, 2020 in Humanitarian Aid, International Deployment
August 10, 2020 in Humanitarian Aid, International Deployment
June 10, 2019 in Exercise Simulation
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May 26, 2019 in Exercise Simulation, International Deployment
May 17, 2019 in Exercise Simulation
April 30, 2019 in General
March 13, 2019 in Exercise Simulation
SIMULEX19 – a 24-hour rescue simulation organized by one of EVOLSAR's founder members the Emergency Fire & Rescue Unit (#EFRU) was concluded successfully yesterday, 10th February at 1000hrs.
The exercise simulated an #earthquake in the Maltese islands, with #Maltese and #foreign rescuers working together to #rescue #victims from different locations. By the end of the exercise, 25 victims had been identified and #rescued successfully using Urban Search and Rescue (#USAR) andrope rescue techniques. All participating teams, hailing from Malta, Italy, Portugal, UK, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary and France are members of #EVOLSAR. EVOLSAR is currently made up of fifteen member teams from ten different countries. In spite of speaking different languages, the volunteer rescuers are working together, combining their efforts in effective teamwork to refine their skills to be able to assist whenever and wherever they are needed. Through this simulation exercise in Malta, the member teams will be able to support the Maltese authorities in case of a local disaster.![]() |
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January 19, 2019 in International Deployment
December 2, 2018 in Exercise Simulation
SAR DAY is an annual event that brings together national and international special rescue teams to train together. This year, SAR DAY 2018's objective was to train rescuers in a situation similar to that which occurred in Thailand relating to a cave rescue. All possible difficulties were simulated, from the great operational and logistical challenges, communication inside the cave, water pumping and cave diving. There were over 150 operational participants in this edition, operating as part of specialized teams in cave rescue, within the participant national authorities as well as part of local and federal speleologists.
The simulation exercised the application of voice communication and transfer of images from the interior of the cave to the whole world via WEB, which demonstrated the capacity of present-day communication systems and how these can be put to use during rescue scenarios.
Despite that it became clear that this specific field (rescue in speleology) is not well established within the international rescue community, a point that was raised directly by SAR DAY 2018 participants, the exercise was another positive and successful one.
Francisco Rocha SARTEAM CommanderEditor's comment: SAR DAY is organised on an annual basis by SARTEAM, a volunteer rescue team based in Portugal. SARTEAM is the lead team for Portugal within EVOLSAR.
October 30, 2018 in Exercise Simulation
October 18, 2018 in General
A team of six EVOLSAR delegates, rescuers from two EVOLSAR member teams, namely the Emergency Fire & Rescue Unit (EFRU) of Malta and the Associação Humanitária dos Bombeiros Voluntários de Peniche (AHBVP) of Portugal made its way to Iceland this October. Its mission was to attend the much awaited biennial rescue conference, Rescue 2018 as organised by the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue (ICE-SAR), at the Harpa Conference Centre in Rejkjavik. The conference ran over three days (12th to 14th October) and consisted of circa 50 lectures spanning over a variety of interesting subjects, including incident management, technical insights specific to the medical, rope rescue and other specialist areas of rescue, as well as retrospective insights into real but past scenarios.
This conference exposed our EVOLSAR delegates to several detailed and technical discussions that were either led by academics in the respective fields or alternatively, by experts who became so, thanks to long years of experience of operations in specialist rescue activities. Moreover, during the conference days, various specialist equipment suppliers set up shop in the foyers around the conference halls to showcase high end rescue equipment and latest personal protective equipment. This enabled visitors to see, first hand, equipment specifically intended for rescue purposes and how the latest technology makes it so fit-for-purpose.
Another pleasant aspect of the conference was a networking dinner held at the much acclaimed Blue Lagoon, in Grindavík. Attendees had the opportunity of dipping into the welcoming geothermal bath, to appreciate an aspect of the beauty that Iceland offers. This gave more opportunity to conference attendees, coming from various places around Europe, American states and Canada to interact socially and establish new contacts for collaboration in the field of rescue and first response.
A very enriching experience indeed. Attendance to the conference has positively broadened the horizons of thought of the EVOLSAR attendees who look forward to the next edition of this event.
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