B-FAST Refresher USAR-team

The military base Roi Albert in Marche-en-Famenne has been familiar territory for the members of the Urban Search and Rescue Team (USAR) of BFAST for a long time already and was once again the base of operations for a three-day training from 22 to 24 April 2014 for about 40 volunteers.

The BFAST USAR team gets deployed when grave earthquakes strike a region in order to search and rescue victims buried under the rubble. During operations, not only advanced search equipment is used, but also specially trained dogs.

The three-day training in Marche-en-Famenne is organized regularly to refresh certain techniques but also to introduce members into new methods and to familiarize volunteers with recently acquired equipment. This time the program contained inter alia strutting techniques, marking of buildings, the execution of risk analysis, GPS and a field exercise. Thanks to the presence of medical and CIS components, all multidisciplinary aspects of an operation were integrated within the training.

This so-called refresher is part of the preparation for the INSARAG-reclassification, which will take place in Denmark at the end of 2015.

The next refresher training will once again take place in the base Roi Albert from 12 to 14 November 2014.