Vancouver Island Canadian Rangers training for Light Urban Search and Rescue capability

Canadian Ranger Curtis Smecher of the Ucluelet Canadian Ranger Patrol looks for survivors during a mock scenario as part of the Light Urban Search and Rescue disaster response training at the Urban Search and Rescue Training Site at CFB Esquimalt.
Photo by Captain Natasha Tersigni, 4th Canadian Ranger Patrol Group

Canadian Ranger Lindsay Chung 
4th Canadian Ranger Patrol Group

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4th Canadian Ranger Patrol Group is developing a new capability in disaster response, starting with the Ucluelet Canadian Ranger Patrol learning Light Urban Search and Rescue skills.

Members of the Ucluelet Canadian Ranger Patrol conducted a three-day introduction to Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) March 4 to 6 at CFB Esquimalt’s Urban Search and Rescue School.

The skills learned will help them assist local authorities in responding to disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis.

“There are three different categories of USAR, and that’s to do with the equipment and personnel you have available; so, you have light, medium, and heavy,” explained Warrant Officer (WO) Evan Laplante, Canadian Ranger Instructor. “We focused more on the light aspects, so Light Urban Search and Rescue, which is typically a 16-member team.”

Training was through a combination of hands-on and classroom learning to understand the levels of Assessment, Search, and Rescue (ASR).

“ASR 1 (first level) is like an area recce,” explained WO Laplante. “ASR 2 is more in-depth; it’s more looking and doing a 360 of each of the buildings, and when you get to ASR 3, that would be getting in and potentially extracting people from bad situations.”

The Rangers also learned rapid damage assessment to determine which buildings would be unsafe to re-occupy, and the hands-on skill of shoring, which is building a vertical support structure that could hold up a doorway to keep LUSAR team members safe as they do their work. They also learned about cribbing and how to lift and potentially move large pieces of material such as concrete slabs.

“The training went very well,” said WO Laplante. “It opened our eyes to what USAR has to offer, as well as it opened our eyes to what we don’t know. It’s very relevant training, especially for where a patrol like Ucluelet is located, and how we can better integrate with emergency management systems throughout B.C.”

Eleven Canadian Rangers took part in the training.

“The reality is we’re going to be on our own for weeks before any kind of help arrives in terms of USAR,” said Sergeant Emily Coombs, Patrol Commander for the Ucluelet CRP. “There really isn’t that capability within our communities to do that sort of thing, and with what we learned, even though there were only 11 of us, if we can band together a group of people who can swing a hammer and pry a pry bar or something, then we can lead those teams and expand our capabilities even more.”

Members of the Ucluelet Canadian Ranger Patrol extract a victim during a mock training scenario.
Photo by Captain Natasha Tersigni, 4th Canadian Ranger Patrol Group