Tracking Clues Eliminate a Human Presence or a "Story With a Bit of a Tail" to it

The Wellington SAR Squad was recently called out to an incident reported as a vehicle down a steep bank with people trapped inside. The accident site was in South Karori (toward the windmill for any one knowing the city). As well as the SAR Squad, the Rope Rescue Team were gathered together with the Ambulance Team, Westpac Helicopter and personnel from other services.

Due to a major traffic delay, the SAR Squad arrive at the scene some time after the others and the Westpac helicopter crew had already checked the vehicle out.

As is so often the case, the real situation was no where near that which had been reported. The car which we were led to believe had just gone down the bank with person or persons trapped inside, had been there for months.

However three "independent" people interviewed, insisted they had heard a woman screaming for help. The Police dog handler had sent his dog down to have a look but did not go himself due to the steep terrain and not wanting to obliterate any tracks the SAR Squad may find. As it transpired this was a good decision.

The vehicle was situated in a headwater that joined another stream below. The area was steep, not steep enough for ropes but still very steep. The SAR Squad who had trained in "track and clue awareness" set about their search by splitting into three groups of two and included some of the Ambulance Officers present.

The area was searched in the three directions of obvious entry and apart from some animal sign, nothing else was seen. The three teams converged on the vehicle and were able to interpret the Helicopter Crew-persons tracks immediately around it as he had checked for occupants. Again no other sign was seen.

Moving further down the stream we again came to some scuff marks which seemed to be more likely to have been made by an animal than a human. On arriving at the stream fork, one team went up this and bingo - a steaming pile of what was thought to be goat excrement. At this point, with no replies to our calls and the absence of tracks in what would have been clue rich soft ground, we concluded that there was no persons in the area.

As we were climbing out, still calling we heard what the “independent” people had heard - you guessed it - h-e-ll-l-llpp-pp-pp. We called again, then again and this time the reply came unmistakably back. Baaa, Baaa!

A goat was high on the other bank. I believe that the call for a rifle went up from somewhere in amongst our ranks.

It was quite amusing at the time but afterward, analysing the operation it showed the importance of the Track and Clue Awareness courses run by SAR. We had eliminated the possibility of a human being in the area and we were right.

Sergeant Andy J Warnes
SAR Coordinator
Wellington

Annual General Meeting Annual General Meeting Annual General Meeting

The NZLSAR AGM will be held on 16 August 1997 at the Kilbirnie Police Station, starting at 1100 hours. The First Notice of Meeting inviting reports, remits, motions etc will be sent out on 6 June and the Final Notice of Meeting with copies of this material, Annual Report and the agenda will be dispatched on 18 July. As well a normal Committee meeting will be held, starting at 0900, break for the AGM and resume at its conclusion. If any Regions have items they wish raised for either meeting, please document your concerns and have them to me by 11 July.

John P Tristram
National Field Officer

Committee Meeting News

The Committee met on Saturday 15 March, starting at 0900 and finishing just after 1630. A long but interesting day in which a whole host of subjects were covered. Below I give a precis of a few of the agenda items.

Finances

The Committee has, since late last year, given consideration to updating the Business Plan; the tasks we need to do in the 97/98 financial year and the costs to perform them. Discussion papers, prompts and various ideas were circulated prior to the meeting so that when the members came together their ideas were well advanced. Although considerable time was spent on the subject, the complexities were such that a small group of Graham Thorp, Roscoe Tait, Phil Rundle and the NFO were delegated to take the draft away and give it the finishing polish. The final document contains a description of the task that needs to be done, the resources that are required, who is responsible, a measure to ensure it is done to a standard, the cost and what Objects it fulfils in the Constitution. It also contained a forecast ahead for five years to show how it will tie in as a master plan. With a covering letter it has been presented to the Police as our application for a grant for the next year. Everybody’s hard work is much appreciated and the Police have complimented NZLSAR on the merit and clarity of the document.

NFO Contract Review

The Subcommittee to consider this consisting of the Chairman, Police and DoC Representatives and Region One Representative was confirmed. They are to determine the job specification, implement annual performance reviews and negotiate contract terms and conditions of the NFO position. They are also to consider any changes to the provision of service agreement with Police, including acceptance of a redundancy payment if redundancy is caused by reduction of Police funding.

Availability of grants

The Committee is very aware that while SAR personnel, as volunteers, give their time for free, there are still many attendant costs. They felt that while their best efforts were to get further finance from Police National Headquarters, that avenue would always be limited relative to the requirements of the Districts. In observing that some Districts seemed to raise relatively large amount of funds, the NFO was asked to find how this was being done.

In talking to people it was very apparent that a lot of people were like myself, extremely uncomfortable with the thought of "fund raising". On the other hand one District that seemed to have little trouble getting funds to run various courses had quite positively set out to manage the process. A small Fundraising SubCommittee has been set up and various information sources including the local library, had been checked for philanthropic trusts and benefactors. A member of this subcommittee’s words were John when we want to buy some equipment, or need help to run a course all we do is ring up and ask for a form, fill it in, mail it back and generally some help arrives.

While I think they may have been overstating the ease of their fundraising it would appear that there are many philanthropic trusts, many of them local, around the country looking for worthy causes to give their money to. As a beginning point, try a phone call to your local Department of Internal Affairs Link Centre and ask for a package of information. I did this and a few days later received a very large parcel with an almost overwhelming amount of information.

Of course any application must be done in a timely fashion and that raises a second requirement for the good management of SAR. It is the Committee’s belief that each District management committee should consider at the start of each year what equipment needs to be purchased or replaced, what training it needs to do and the total costs for all this (just as the NZLSAR Committee does). When presented as a written document to the District Police SAR Coordinators, it becomes his task to get what he can from within the Departments budget. To make up any shortfall, some Districts are, with considerable success, then approaching the philanthropic trusts to achieve their goals.

NZLSAR Awards

The Committee considered and approved an NZLSAR Award for Laurie Cobb, Alan Hepburn, Keith Hepburn and Neil Harris.

Laurie, who resigned in February this year as a Te Awamutu District Adviser, has contributed more that forty-five years to SAR in the Thames area. He was involved in the July 1963 DC3 crash in the Kaimai Ranges and “Operation Stockholm” in the Coromandel Ranges in 1989. He was made an Adviser when the position was first created many years ago.

Alan was instrumental in setting up the Methven SAR Group nearly thirty years ago and has been Chairman of it since. He has been an Adviser for thirty years and has chaired the Canterbury Land SAR Committee, as well as being the Chairman of the Region 5 Canterbury/West Coast Committee.

Keith went on his first search in 1964, over thirty three years ago, and was involved as Field Controller in the Profanity Cave search in 1980 . Now retiring from the role, he has been a West Coast Adviser based at Reefton for many years and was also involved with Civil Defence. As a Forest Service employee he was often “at the front of the front line” when news came of a mishap in the local hills.

Neil, as a Christchurch Adviser, is retiring from that role and going to live on the West Coast. He has been involved with SAR for over thirty years and at least fifteen of them as Adviser. For SAR, he has also acted very much as the “fence at the top of the cliff and not just the ambulance at the bottom” by being heavily involved with Mountain Safety Council and giving freely of his knowledge as an Instructor.

I am sure we all stand in awe at the many years of service these four people have given to the community, agree that the Award is well deserved and applaud its presentation to them.

NFO Leave

Approval was given for the NFO to take some six weeks leave for an overseas trip starting immediately after the AGM and Committee meeting, starting on the 18 August. While overseas he will be making contact with a number of SAR groups and hopefully viewing some of their activities.

John P Tristram
National Field Officer

Stop Press Stop Press Stop Press Stop Press Stop Press Stop Press

Amongst the business discussed at the recent Committee meeting was the idea and need to have a get together of members of the Committee and the Regional Committee Office Holders, namely their Chairmen and Secretaries. After nearly three years of settling down for these new Committees, any problems associated with running them need to be considered and addressed. The thought was that with members travelling in for a meeting, they could stay in town or at the Police College on the Saturday night and an agenda for discussion with the Regional people would allow work to continue on the Sunday.

It was felt that the AGM weekend (AGM 16 August) was too soon so a meeting later in the year was considered and venue availability checked. Arrangements for accommodation at the Police College for the weekend 7/8/9 November 1997 can now be confirmed.

Regional Chairmen and Secretaries are invited (a more formal invite will go out later) to travel to Wellington with the Committee members on Friday afternoon and be observers at the Saturday meeting or fly in on Saturday for a get together on Saturday night or arrive on Sunday morning. A small problem with this latter choice is the dearth of early Sunday morning flights, especially from the smaller centres.

After three years it is an appropriate time for the Regional Committee Office Holders to be reviewing the role and the success or otherwise of their Committees, the problems inherent in selecting a Regional Representative to NZLSAR, the feedback that should occur between the “grass roots” and the national body and the office holders continuing involvement in all this.

With the changes to the Police boundaries it is also timely for the Regional Representatives “area of representation” to be considered; what shape and size is the geographical area that they can service? It will be some time before I call for agenda items, but can all Regional Office Holders give the matter some thought and make a note in their diaries for this weekend.

Graham Thorp
Chairman NZLSAR

Mines Rescue and the Bendigo SAREX

Participating at the recent Bendigo SAREX was a Mines Rescue team. While many Districts will not have much call for their services, those that have old mine shafts, large sewer pipes or even farm offal pits into which a person, especially a child may have crawled or fallen, should remember the expertise this group can bring to such a problem. You may wish to note the names and phone numbers at the end of this article in your “Standard Operating Procedures”.

On 1/2 March 1997 Mines Rescue were part of a SAREX held in the old goldfields of Bendigo, high in the mountains above Cromwell.

The importance for Mines Rescue to attend had a two fold reason; one to highlight the expertise and equipment carried throughout New Zealand and the other to promote Mines Rescue as an organisation with excellent organisation skills, with the ability to coordinate its resources and manpower very quickly and to expose to the emergency services and the public at large, how Mines Rescue can assist in an emergency.

The managerial, organisational skills and expertise that our 85 strong members bring to Mines Rescue comes from the range of individual skills as in engineers, electricians and fitters. We require a minimum of at least forty hours per man each year of intensive training in basic first aid, CPR revision, gas detection, team leadership roles, foam generation, heat and humidity, radio communications and lifting bags. These skills combined with the ability to work in irrepressi ble atmospheres for long durations, I feel, makes the Mines Rescue slightly different from other emergency services.

All our members must meet a stringent fitness and medical criteria each year.

It is a concern to us that industries and recreational groups alike inadvertently place themselves at risk because of their inability to recognise or indeed prove that the inherent atmosphere and conditions lend to safe working conditions.

Mines Rescue can offer and does carry that necessary expertise to educate and minimise those risks.

If you wish to know more contact any of the following at our stations. Stan Alder Huntley 07-828-9772, Don Lander Greymouth 03-762-7828 or Peter Booth Ohai 03-225-4880

Don Lander
General Manager
NZ Mines Rescue

Editors Comments

To Graham, Don and Andy a big thank your for your articles. To those who proof read, checked the spelling or grammar, thank you also. Copy for the August edit ion of NZLSAR News will be Friday 25 July 1997. Articles on gear, SAR training or operations are most welcome. Please either mail as neatly hand-written, printed hard copy or on a disc to NZLSAR PO Box 12081 Thorndon Wellington. Alternatively email it to tristram.nzlsar@xtra.co.nz

Regards, John P Tristram