USAR Questions

[TillamanTrk1]

Got a couple questions about USAR. Im located here in Atlanta, ga and honestly just heard about usar a little while ago. Just wondering how you go about getting certs by them. I'm Fully GSAR certified which is just for our state- Rope tech, con-space tech, trench, and structural collapse. Just wondering where you can attend USAR classes or if you have to be apart of a team or what. Might be stupid questions but hey, gotta start somewhere!!

[MikeWard]

No stupid questions.

There are only two US USAR teams that are sponsored by USAID to respond to international incidents: Los Angeles and Fairfax counties

Our Mandate
The Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) is the office within USAID responsible for facilitating and coordinating U.S. Government emergency assistance overseas. As part of USAID’s Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA), OFDA provides humanitarian assistance to save lives, alleviate human suffering, and reduce the social and economic impact of humanitarian emergencies worldwide.


Our Work
OFDA responds to all types of natural disasters, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, floods, droughts, fires, pest infestations, and disease outbreaks. OFDA also provides assistance when lives or livelihoods are threatened by catastrophes such as civil conflict, acts of terrorism, or industrial accidents. In addition to emergency assistance, OFDA funds mitigation activities to reduce the impact of recurrent natural hazards and provides training to build local capacity for disaster management and response.

There are 28 regional teams that are funded by FEMA and are part of the National Response Framework. Many of them were sent to assist Haiti last year.

http://www.fema.gov/emergency/usr/

Most of the teams are comprised of existing fire department crews.

When deployed the members are operating as "occasional federal employee" and the trend is to make all of these type of federally supported teams function as a military reserve unit.

The nearest teams to Atlanta are Miami-Dade, Memphis and Virginia Beach

[jmatthe2]

To expand a bit....USAR is not an organization but a rescue discipline. The GSAR courses are USAR courses. FEMA is who has developed much of the curriculum for USAR to include technical search, Rigging, Medical, and various management positions.

As a state USAR team member and not a member of a Federal Response team (see Mike's map) you cannot get a certification from FEMA for their courses. However, there are a couple locations where you can receive additional training that uses the FEMA course curriculum, thus you are getting the same class. Let me rephrase that...The same class in that the course material is the same. Various agencies use the FEMA curriculum but use inexperienced instructors so be careful as you look around.

There are a ton of training companies out there these days so with a little google search you can check many out. If you are specifically looking for additional collapse training look at Virginia Beach and Charlotte, NC. Both have very good instructors and excellent resources to put on a pretty intense class.

If you are looking for additional training such as technical search, rigging, planning officer....you options are fewer. I do some teaching for TrainingTECH1 so give them a look see. www.trainingtech1.com. The only others I know that can offer the full line of FEMA type USAR courses are Safety Solutions and SPEC Rescue.

Jeff

[TillamanTrk1]

To expand a bit....USAR is not an organization but a rescue discipline. The GSAR courses are USAR courses. FEMA is who has developed much of the curriculum for USAR to include technical search, Rigging, Medical, and various management positions.

As a state USAR team member and not a member of a Federal Response team (see Mike's map) you cannot get a certification from FEMA for their courses. However, there are a couple locations where you can receive additional training that uses the FEMA course curriculum, thus you are getting the same class. Let me rephrase that...The same class in that the course material is the same. Various agencies use the FEMA curriculum but use inexperienced instructors so be careful as you look around.

There are a ton of training companies out there these days so with a little google search you can check many out. If you are specifically looking for additional collapse training look at Virginia Beach and Charlotte, NC. Both have very good instructors and excellent resources to put on a pretty intense class.

If you are looking for additional training such as technical search, rigging, planning officer....you options are fewer. I do some teaching for TrainingTECH1 so give them a look see. www.trainingtech1.com. The only others I know that can offer the full line of FEMA type USAR courses are Safety Solutions and SPEC Rescue.

Jeff

THanks Jeff. This is exactly what I wanted to know!

Thomas