WHAT WE DO

Alberta Search and Rescue teams are not self-activated. 

Once contacted by jurisdictional authorities, such as the police, RCMP, etc, our team is dispatched and swiftly assembled with additional required resources to establish situational awareness of the incident and begin our work. 

Various trained K9, UAVs (drones equipped with high-tech thermal imaging), and helicopters are often requested as quickly as critical intel is received, depending on the specific requirements of the incident. 

MV SAR can respond to numerous types of incidents in almost any environment, with various capabilities and the ability to call upon specialized resources. 

On any given mission, a Search & Rescue Alberta team may be providing any one of the following services for the province:

• Searching for lost and missing persons (e.g. finding a lost child in the woods, an urban search for someone with dementia, or a despondent individual in any setting)
• Rescuing someone in distress in the backcountry (e.g. administering first aid, treating for hypothermia, and/or acute trauma, etc.)
• Providing an evidence search for the RCMP (e.g. searching for human remains, crime-scene evidence/weapons, etc.)
• Assisting in disaster response and/or humanitarian relief, such as flooding or forest fires (e.g. evacuations, and assisting First Nations emergency Operations Centres)

CAPABILITIES & SPECIALIZED TRAINING

To meet the diverse needs of individuals, each SAR Alberta team has several capabilities, which may include but not be limited to:

• Ground SAR (urban, rural, remote)
• Inland-water SAR
  • Swiftwater
  • Flat water
  • Ice
  • Diving
• Mountain operations (avalanche & alpine)
• Evidence search
• Helicopter operations
• First aid & medical first response
• Civil emergency & All-Hazards disaster response
• Recovery
• Tracking
• Technical rope rescue (high- and low-angle)
• Survival scenarios
• Cave rescue
• Canine
  • Canine human-remains detection
  • Canine water operations for drowning subjects
  • Canine live-find area search
  • Canine disaster detection for survivors & deceased

Some SAR Alberta teams also have trained individuals who provide preventative education to schools and the public to keep people safe and reduce the likelihood and severity of Search & Rescue incidents. For more information, please visit Outdoor Safety.

FIRST NATION SEARCH & RESCUE  

Search & Rescue Alberta teams also support the RCMP during search and rescue incidents on First Nation reserves.

Many First Nations are looking to establish their own search and rescue programs and have connected with Search and Rescue Alberta to create shared training opportunities. 

The O’Chiese First Nation is the first of its kind within the province to establish such a program. Currently, there are six fully-trained search and rescue members who are also members of the O’Chiese fire department.