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Urban search and rescue supports emergency response resilience training

Fire service works with partners to train National Ambulance Resilience Unit technicians

USAR

A team from West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service joined together with partners to help train new National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) technicians last week.

The multi-agency training exercise, held at the Fire Service College in Gloucestershire, was part of a training course for new Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) technicians, to increase response resilience in the event of an emergency.

A group of 11 staff from West Yorkshire’s Urban Search and Rescue Team (USAR), including the service’s search dog team and tactical advisor, staged a major incident resulting in a simulated building collapse and persons reported missing.

Andy Rose, Strategic Development Group Manager at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, said: “We get invited annually by the National Resilience Assurance team and NARU, which are the leading organisations in emergency resilience, to take part in the exercise to support this vital training and help their new technicians to complete their training with a USAR exercise."

The exercise involves working with other partners including Disaster Victim Identification and other USAR teams.