By TERRY PUGH
An estimated 80 search and rescue volunteers from across Saskatchewan will converge on Warman in late June for a crash course in assisting first responders deal with large-scale emergency situations.
A ‘Humanitarian Workforce Multi-Jurisdictional Search Exericse (MJSE) orgnaized by the Search and Rescue Saskatchewan Association of Volunteers (SARSAV) is slated to take place in Warman June 26-28.
SARSAV is made up of over 400 individual members in 19 member chapters of search and rescue professionals (paid and unpaid) who volunteer their time for training, search missions, preventive information and public awareness.
The MJSE training exercise will focus on operational readiness and improving coordination among search and rescue volunteers, emergency management professionals, public safety agencies and humanitarian response organizations, according to SARSAV President Bobbi Buchanan.
The annual large-scale training session utilizes a simulated disaster to give participants practical experience, explained Warman Fire Chief Russ Austin, a key leader of the North Corman Park Search and Rescue (NCPSAR) chapter.
“Last year the event was held in the southern part of the province and was based on a plane crash scenario,” said Austin. “This year, the simulated natural disaster is a tornado.”
He noted the City of Warman will send out a notification prior to the event alerting residents that this is a simulation and not a real emergency.
Austin said the “humanitarian workforce” attending the training weekend are people who are already certified in basic search and rescue skills, and who will be given additional Disaster Assistance Response Training (DART) to enable them to back up professional emergency responders in large-scale disasters.
“They’ll learn traffic control, sandbagging, damage assessment, wellness checks, evacuation support, and basic rescue techniques including the use of crowbars and cribbing for extrication,” said Austin. “These are all skills that we’ll be highlighting and practicing over the weekend.”
In addition to SARSAV humanitarian workforce volunteers, the training event will also include professional protective services personnel including police, firefighters and officials from the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA). The objective is to increase the level of coordination among all those involved, said Austin.
“It will basically be a simulated scenario in which a tornado has gone through the from the west side of the city to the northeast corner,” he said. “We’re operating it as though it’s a real misson incident support team.
“The first day, Friday, will be a panel discussion with SPSA officals; and then on Saturday, we’ll get into specific training, where the people will be assembled into strike teams and then each team rotates through basic training stations. One station will be how to prepare sandbags; another station will be how to assess and triage mass casualty, and another one is basic DART rescue skills.”
The training includes sessions at the Warman Fire Hall and in selected neighbourhoods within the city.
“For part of the training, they’ll be doing structural and hazard evaulation and damage assessment, and teaching people to do wellness checks,” said Austin. “In some neighbourhoods where there are quite a few houses under construction, it’s ideal for simulating damage assessment to buildings.”
Austin said it’s important to have trained support people to assist fireifghters, medical responders and police during a large-scale emergency because it spreads the workload and makes rescue efforts more efficient.
“In a disaster situation like a tornado or flood, the DART-trained humanitarian workforce is invaluable,” said Austin. “It doesn’t make sense to have highly-trained police personnel tied up controlling traffic at intersections, when you could staff that with competent, trained people. Let the officers do their police work.
“And in our world, where we have a paid on-call volunteer fire department made up of 29 members, we’re going to need every available member for critical tasks in large-scale emergencies.
“There’s going to be people trapped, there’s going to be fires, there’s going to be gas leaks. You don’t want firefighters manning barricades and doing wellness checks when other people can be trained to do those tasks at a time like that.”
Austin said so far in 2026, members of North Corman Park Search and Rescue have been deployed four times.