September 27th and 28th, 2014
Coquitlam, BC
Coquitlam Search and Rescue in conjunction with the British Columbia Search and Rescue Association (BCSARA), is organizing the first regional search and rescue conference for SAR groups on the south coast in 14 years.
SAREx Southwest (SARxSW) will see the 14 Ground SAR (GSAR) teams from southwestern BC’s Sea-to-Sky and Fraser Valley regions; Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA); Royal Canadian Marine SAR (RCM-SAR); Coquitlam Amateur Radio (CARESS); representatives from the RCMP; Metro Vancouver, BC Ambulance and other emergency management and first responders (20 agencies in all) participate in a two day conference.
Douglas College has volunteered to host the event at the David Lam (Coquitlam) campus, donating space at their facility, and several other sponsors have stepped forward to support the event financially.
The conference is divided into two parts, by day;
Saturday will consist of meetings, seminars, presentations and classroom training sessions on topics such as disaster response, mapping, radio communications, and tracking technology.
Sunday will see conference attendees participating in one of five field workshops being held in the Coquitlam area;
- Large scale Search and Rescue exercise on Pitt Lake
- Incident Management / Communications exercise at Coquitlam Town Centre Fire Hall
- Royal Canadian Marine SAR cross-training on Indian Arm
- Rope rescue workshop on Burke Mountain
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicle demo and scenario on Eagle Mountain
SARxSW represents a valuable opportunity for the SAR groups from southwest BC to come together, exchange ideas and train for interoperability.
More information about the event is posted at the conference web site: SARxSW.ca