Member of Search Rescue and Recover Resources of Minnesota www.srrrmn.org Services ESS provides the following services to Federal, State, County, and local agencies: - Mobile communication support
- On scene cartography
- Support for search and rescue operations.
- Underwater search, rescue, and recovery utilizing sonar technology.
- Technical rescue equipment.
Communications support ESS can provide a mobile communication vehicle that can support multiply communication frequencies at a time in the 2-meter (140 – 160 KHz) and 70cm (420 – 468 KHz). We also can provide the requesting agency with additional hand held transceivers and specialized field deployable cross band repeaters. Cartography services Our mobile support vehicle carries computer equipment with USGS topography data, aerial and satellite photos, proprietary software from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and other data and software sources. With these mapping resources ESS can greatly increase the detailed knowledge of the area to be search thus increasing the efficiency and detailed record keeping in the event of the search area becoming a crime scene. Search and Rescue Land-based searches (SAR resources)
Communication assistance Cartography assistance
Technical rope rescue services (See the SERVICES area) Sonar ESS has been providing agencies with sonar services for over 20 years. While the sonar's primary use has been in the rescue or recovery of drowning victims, our skills have been utilized in light plane crashes, weapon recovery, verification of navigational structures, archaeological sites, and requested on two major commercial air crashes. ESS uses a Wesmar oceanographic section scan sonar. This unit not only scans 360 degrees but can also look straight down like a simple fish finder. This type of sonar breaks the returning signal into different colors based on the signals' densities, thus giving the operator a different color for each type of reflection. Other features include: - Search widths 50 to 150 feet wide.
- Transducer beam width of 7.5 degrees.
- 13 color NTSC Display.
- Modified by the manufacturer for better short-range resolution in fresh water.
- Operational day or night.
The difference between successfully rescuing a near-drowning victim versus recovering a body often lies in early activation of resources. When a struggling victim is on the surface of the water there are many options available for rescue, most within the skills of the average fire department or water patrol. But when the victim submerges, the options become very limited. In most counties these include drag lines, which are notoriously ineffective, and a dive team. Dive teams are essential in recovering drowning victims, but they take time to deploy and are inefficient in searching large areas. In our experience, the most efficient use of available underwater search, rescue and recovery resources is as follows: - Utilize water cadaver scenting dogs to narrow the search area.
- Concurrent with the dog teams, utilze the sonar to a) image the subsurface/underwater environment, b) identify underwater hazards for the dive recovery team, and c) identify anomalies which may be the drowning victim. A buoy is then placed near each anomaly.
- The local dive team then examines each anomaly.
When resources are utilized in such a manner, often the number of personnel required on scene is decreased and the on-scene time is reduced from days to hours, thus dramatically decreasing costs. In addition, for the search operations in which we were on-scene within a few hours of the accident and a well defined target area was identified, our recovery rate has been 100%. We have even found a victim that was not part of the original search. Equipment ESS provides access to technical rescue equipment and for the agencies looking to purchase, discount pricing from the following specialized technical equipment manufacturers is available. Pigeon Mountain Industries (PMI)
PETZL (The worlds larges manufacture of safety and rescue equipment) |
