Saving lives on the side
By Kate Kennedy
kkenne8@uwo.ca
It's difficult to rely on someone unfamiliar
when you're waist deep in water, starting to worry, and the current's
getting a little swift.
If the colleague at the end of the rope you're attached to, while
on a rescue mission, is someone you don't know — that's not
the person you want there, says Jamie Walls, a volunteer with
the London Search and Rescue team.
Walls stands in front of 30 Londoners interested
in joining the LSAR team. He's dressed in navy from head to toe,
his oversized jacket and slacks reminiscent of a firefighter's
suit.
"The person you want at the end of the
rope is the person you're friends with, you're familiar with,"
he says. "You know their strengths, you know their weaknesses."
Jamie's voice is steady as he explains the importance of trust
within the rescue team. To his left, his wife Alesha sits with
their infant daughter, who's wrapped up in a light pink blanket.
Alesha wears the same navy suit as her husband.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Alesha
Walls |
| Alesha and Jamie Walls practise walking
with a pack on their back as part of a charity walk in 2005. |
The Walls are two of more than 50 LSAR volunteers. Every member
is unpaid and highly-trained — to save lives.
Jamie co-leads a recruitment meeting held twice a year at the
St. John Ambulance building in southeast London.
The audience is quiet throughout the PowerPoint that he and the
team's superintendent, Bev Sugden, put on.
At the end of an hour the audience asks a few questions, most
of which are along the lines of "when do we start?"
But there's a lot more to being part of LSAR than what "civilians"
may think.
The team meets twice each month for administration and training,
which volunteers must keep up with no matter how long they've
been in LSAR. New members are required to pass a police records
check, an introduction to search and rescue course, and BSR, or
the Basic Search and Rescue course, which brings them up to Ontario
Provincial Police standards for search and rescue, says Sugden.
Members must also be considered physically fit, which means they
can walk 10 kilometres with a pack on their back for two hours
and 20 minutes.
They respond to requests for help from the London Police Service,
OPP, St. Thomas Police and Strathroy-Caradoc Police Services,
among others, which takes them through varied terrain.
"We go through mud, swamps, rivers...thorns, bushes. We
look for bodies that are lost, injured," says Sugden. "Sometimes
we are asked to go and help with body recoveries."
The majority of the team's searches are for the elderly and missing
children, says Jamie. And no two searches are the same; each is
catered to the specific scenario. A grid search, for example,
is done in lines, like the grid of a map, requiring extensive
manpower.
The police often don't have the resources to conduct a large-scale
search like a grid, says Const. Anders Nielsen of the St. Thomas
Police. "The (extra) numbers really help out."
A contour search involves the team following the form of the
land, like a river bank or a path in a wooded area, says Alesha.
A city search can involve exploring open park areas or a particular
neighbourhood.
Team members may walk from house to house with a picture of the
missing person and ask residents if they've seen that individual,
says Alesha. A couple of years ago, she was involved in a search
for an eight-year-old boy who went missing around New Year's Eve.
The team knocked on peoples' doors with a picture of the boy
and said, "Is your son a friend of this boy?" and, "Can
you just double-check to make sure that someone's not having an
unexpected sleepover?"
"If we ever found something that was, say, a little off
about someone's house, then we might request to have an officer
follow up," says Alesha.
Because of the precarious nature of the work, Sugden is clear
that a high standard of safety must be maintained.
Volunteers pay about $20 for membership per year (after their
first and second year, which are $40 and $30, respectively) and
get training in map work, GPS, rappelling, radio protocol, note
taking, survival and first aid. As part of St. John Ambulance,
the team relies on donations and applies to foundations to help
pay for necessary equipment.
This year marks the fifth anniversary for the team, which is
a member of OSARVA, the Ontario Search and Rescue Volunteers Association.
The London team has been a part of the London-Middlesex core of
St. John Ambulance since 2004, and covers a 100-kilometre radius
around the city.
A search begins when police call Kyle Mackay, the West representative
of OSARVA, to tell him the team may be needed to search.
This can happen anytime. "We're out there at all hours of
the day," he says.
The size of the team required depends on the search and how many
volunteers can make it. Because it's a voluntary position, it's
important that everyone knows they can turn down a search if need
be, says Sugden.
"I would prefer that everybody said 'no' to me, rather than
going out... and then we're having to... rescue you out of the
bush as well," Sugden says.
Post-mission, the group debriefs to discuss the search, going
over what went right and where they can improve.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Alesha
Walls |
| Alesha Walls practises rappelling at one
of the group's training sessions in 2004. |
"The debriefing is usually one of the most important parts
of the search," says Alesha. "Just because it does help
everybody unwind from the adrenaline rush of searching. The debriefing
can help team members cope with any doubts they may have right
after a search.
"Even though we don't search emotionally, there can be a
million things running through our head.
'What if I did something differently on the search? Would that
have affected the outcome?' There's always that in the back of
your head when you're finished a search."
The discussion gives searchers an opportunity to be reassured
that they did their best, says Alesha.
Alesha says she would never worry about Jamie when he's out on
a search "regardless of what he'd be searching for"
because emotions do not come into play.
"We just stay focused on finding the person. Really, if
you get emotions involved, you're probably not the best person
to be searching," she says.
The team searches more for clues than the actual person, says
Alesha.
For example, if the team was looking for a 10-year-old boy and
they found a shoe on the ground that hadn't been weathered, that
would be something to bring to the police's attention.
The possibility is there that a member can find a dead body,
but that's not the team's focus, says Mackay. The aim is to successfully
rescue a living person.
Team members have also contributed on public service duties,
Sugden says, such as a recent train derailment in Burlington,
Ont.
"Seventeen and a half hours—freezing at train tracks.
It was the coldest thing I've ever done," she says to the
prospective LSAR members. "Then I realized it was my birthday."
Despite all these sacrifices, the end of any successful search
is awesome, adds Alesha.
"(It's) a lot more fulfilling than any other thing that
I could possibly do."
