Online USAR CAT Rescue Exercise

Online USAR CAT Rescue Exercise

One of the most important skills involved with both USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) is the ability to pick something out in a tangled mess, or a burned / destroyed structure.

This exercise is aimed at honing those skills, and reinforcing the fact that not everyone can find something quickly. It takes time and patience.

For the purposes of this drill, your mission is to find a cat, not a person but the skill set is the same. You are looking for the obvious. That's it. Can you find the cat? Someone told me that they had identified two. I'm not so sure about that one...

PLEASE... don't reply with the answer, but instead, and be honest, how long did it take you to find the cat?

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!

CBz

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Permalink Reply by Paul Spencer on November 20, 2011 at 6:24pm

Thanks Cap, that was fun. I got lucky, was only 1/4 the way into the search and found it. About a minute and a half.

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Permalink Reply by Derek R. on November 20, 2011 at 7:27pm

Hey CBz

2 minutes and 1 second.

great idea

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Permalink Reply by Anita King on November 20, 2011 at 7:47pm

This is pretty cool. I found it in about a minute, but I am a cat lover and a picture puzzle enthusiast, so I think that might have helped! Good one.

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Permalink Reply by Bull on November 20, 2011 at 9:16pm

WOW.....3 min and 25 sec

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on November 20, 2011 at 9:40pm

It only took me about 20 seconds. I only see one cat, but there is an indistinct shape that might be a second one.

In real life, the trick is to use ground-penetrating sonar (Delsar systems) to pick up sounds, but if you're not a USAR team or if you don't have a friendly local engineering firm, you probably won't have that capability.

The next option is to use Thermal Imaging Cameras to scan the outside of the pile and the openings into survivable voids. The TIC would have picked up the cat immediately.

The next option - if it's a warm day and the pile temperature is close to body temp - is to look for movement. That can be complicated if there is lots of paper or other light debris blowiong around - there may be so much movement that purposeful movement may be difficult to detect.

Other than unnecessarily risking your personnel on the pile and risking making the situation worse, the last option is a USAR-type search camera with extension probes and LED lighting to probe voids. Most first-response assets don't have that option, but SWAT teams and hardware stores have similar technology that can help. Think "Borescope".

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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on November 21, 2011 at 4:02am

As usual, you add so much to the discussion, providing insight into the tools used to do various tasks, with this one including USAR Tools. New things identified included:

Delsar Systems

The Delsar USAR Kit combines a Life Detector Sensor System and a Victim Simulator, together in one case.

The DVS-100 (Delsar Victim Simulator) is a training tool for victim search and rescue, but also doubles as a calibration unit for the Seisimc Sensors for use on different surface materials.

Used by FEMA, UKSAR, USAR, SUSAR and rescue teams from around the world, the Delsar USAR Kit is a seismic/acoustic listening device used to detect and locate live victims trapped in:

Collapsed structures caused by earthquakes
Explosions
Landslides
Mine disasters or cave-ins

The Delsar USAR Kit converts the entire collapsed structure into a large sensitive microphone that transmits noises from entombed victims. The seismic and acoustic sensors convert vibrations created by the live victim into audible and visual signals. The Delsar is rugged, reliable and able to withstand days of continuous use at the disaster site.

Borescope

Thanks for the input Ben!

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Permalink Reply by Wade Seely on November 21, 2011 at 11:47am

30 sec

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Permalink Reply by Mike "Lapo" Lapotasky on November 21, 2011 at 12:19pm

90-120 seconds. I was on a second, slower scan when I found it. If it were a dog it would get itself out of this mess...

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Permalink Reply by Andy Turnham on November 21, 2011 at 8:03pm

I took me almost five minutes to find that d@#*d cat, but I spotted a doo-dad I'd been serching for for months in 3 mins, does that count?

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Permalink Reply by Moose on November 22, 2011 at 1:29pm

4 mins 12 secs...Good excercise Cap!!! If you said find the pizza I would have won hands down! But thats my problem...

Thanks for the great info too. I always look forward to your posts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Permalink Reply by Oldman on November 22, 2011 at 4:27pm

Well CBz, I admit, I almost pussed out after 1 min. Then I realized that I could look at in in blind man's mode and was able to acquire the target in another 10 sec.