When major earth­quakes shake and devas­tate a region of this earth, every hour counts for victims, the injured and the buried. The scale of destruc­tion often exceeds the capac­ity of local relief work­ers and requires inter­na­tional assistance.

To rescue people from rubble around the world, @fire’s inter­na­tion­ally recog­nized and certi­fied Light USAR team is ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.

As one of only three German rescue teams and the first certi­fied Light USAR team world­wide, @fire is a member of INSARAG. The Inter­na­tional Search and Rescue Advi­sory Group (INSARAG) was estab­lished in 1991 as a subsidiary orga­ni­za­tion of the United Nations. The tasks of the orga­ni­za­tion are to develop inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion in the field of debris rescue (USAR = Urban Search and Rescue). The main task is the coor­di­na­tion and stan­dard­iza­tion of inter­na­tional rescue teams. Clear struc­tures, defined capa­bil­i­ties and stan­dard­ized processes are intended to make inter­na­tional aid more effec­tive and targeted.

Specialty: Rescue of buried victims

The rescue team special­izes in locat­ing trapped people in the rubble of collapsed build­ings, rescu­ing them and provid­ing medical care. To this end, @fire has special­ized equip­ment on hand, rang­ing from track­ing devices to recov­ery equip­ment to medical equip­ment. This is air-portable and perma­nently avail­able for use in a ware­house. By means of elab­o­rate logis­tics, the team is completely self-suffi­cient for the entire dura­tion of the assign­ment and can be deployed worldwide.

@fire is a member of UN INSARAG

To date, the assis­tance of @fire’s Urban Search and Rescue team has been called upon around the globe for rescue after earth­quakes, seaquakes and tsunamis, typhoons, or an explo­sion as part of United Nations relief operations.

Rubble structures in Haiti
Rubble struc­tures in Haiti
Destroyed streets in Port-au-Prince
Destroyed streets in Port-au-Prince
Mission Team Haiti 2005
Mission Team Haiti 2005
Technical search for missing persons
Tech­ni­cal search for miss­ing persons
Transport with forces of the United Nations
Trans­port with forces of the United Nations
Destroyed building in Nepal
Destroyed build­ing in Nepal
Medical care exercise
Medical care exercise
Outreach team in Beirut
Outreach team in Beirut
Previ­ous
Next

The team is supported in the rescue work by rescue dogs that are specially trained to search in rubble. They sniff out the rough loca­tion of a survivor so that an exact posi­tion can then be deter­mined by track­ing devices and a rescue can be initi­ated. Medical respon­ders then care for the rescued person until a trans­fer to another rescue unit or appro­pri­ate hospi­tal takes place.

Rescue dogs - An irre­place­able part of the team

The volun­teers of @fire have been able to rely on their own rescue dog unit (so-called “K9 Unit”) since 2014. The specially trained search dogs are able to quickly search large-scale debris struc­tures, indi­cat­ing deeply buried indi­vid­u­als. Thus, the rescue dogs at @fire form an indis­pens­able and profes­sional part in the rescue chain.

Like most of the helpers at @fire, the dog handlers and their rescue dogs perform addi­tional service search­ing for miss­ing and buried people in other relief orga­ni­za­tions all over Germany, in addi­tion to the demand­ing world­wide disas­ter relief work. In addi­tion to the national require­ments, rescue dogs must also complete addi­tional train­ing sessions and meet the inter­na­tional test­ing guide­lines of the Inter­na­tional Rescue Dog Orga­ni­za­tion (IRO ).

Only oper­a­tional rescue dog teams are used in inter­na­tional disas­ters. The @fire teams obtain this qual­i­fi­ca­tion through an inter­na­tional oper­a­tional test conducted by the IRO. This oper­a­tional test guar­an­tees the world­wide qual­ity stan­dard in a rescue team.