Safety in SAR Environments
Note: The following information is based on recommendations from the National Association for Search and Rescue's (NASAR) Fundamentals of Search and Rescue 2nd Edition handbook.
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this module, responders should be able to:
Hazard Control: List the five primary hazard controls in priority order, identify the control of last resort, and explain why it is designated as such.
Safety Culture: Define a "safety culture" and explain its importance within a search and rescue team.
Health Care Safety: Identify standard medical precautions and additional operational guidelines used to protect rescuers and subjects.
Environmental Threats: Describe safety protocols for lightning, recognize the signs of hypothermia, and identify common cold and heat-related injuries.
1. Hazard Mitigation & Risk Management
Search and Rescue operations inherently involve hazardous environments. To protect team members, SAR leaders and technicians utilize formal risk management practices. Hazards are mitigated using NASAR's Hierarchy of Hazard Controls, ordered from most effective to least effective:
Elimination (Most Effective): Completely designing out or avoiding the hazard. If the threat is removed, the risk is zero.
Substitution: Replacing a hazardous approach or tool with a safer alternative (e.g., using specialized technical gear instead of improvising).
Engineering Controls: Isolating responders from the hazard through physical controls (e.g., providing clean, purified drinking water in remote areas).
Administrative Controls: Establishing safety policies, operational protocols, risk assessments, and targeted training.
Personal Protective Equipment / PPE (Last Resort): Gear worn to protect the individual. While critical, PPE is considered the last line of defense because it does not remove or reduce the underlying hazard.
Fostering a Safety Culture
An effective organization relies on a team-wide safety culture. This mindset requires every responder to take personal responsibility for safety by remaining situationally aware, maintaining physical and operational readiness, and actively identifying and mitigating hazards before they cause harm.
2. Health Care Safety & Standard Precautions
SAR technicians regularly encounter medical emergencies involving missing subjects or injured teammates. To prevent the transmission of bloodborne pathogens and infectious diseases, responders must adhere to Standard Precautions:
Hand Hygiene: Wash hands with soap and water for 40–60 seconds. When water is unavailable, clean off visible dirt and use an alcohol-based sanitizer for 20–30 seconds.
Gloves: Wear nitrile, latex, or vinyl gloves whenever contact with blood, body fluids, non-intact skin, or mucous membranes is possible. (Gloves can be worn under work gloves).
Facial Protection & Body Covers: Use eye protection, masks, and protective gowns during procedures that may generate splashes or sprays of body fluids.
Respiratory Hygiene: Use barrier devices or mouthpieces for rescue breathing. Provide masks or tissues to coughing subjects when appropriate.
Equipment & Environmental Sanitation: Disinfect patient care equipment, litter gear, and shared surfaces after exposure to body fluids. Treat contaminated waste as hazardous material.
General Field Operational Guidelines
To ensure team safety during active rescues, NASAR establishes the following operational standards:
Technical Qualifications: Only deploy qualified technical personnel for specialized operations (e.g., technical rope rescue, swiftwater, or alpine operations).
Deceased Subject Recovery: Prioritize responder safety above all else. Recover deceased subjects only after all scene hazards have been thoroughly assessed and mitigated.
Subject Stabilization: Fully stabilize subjects medically and physically before moving them, and maintain stabilization throughout transport.
Route Scouting: Select the safest, easiest transport route. Appoint a dedicated Route Finder equipped with a radio and trail markers to identify hazards ahead of the litter team.
Litter Transport Protocols: Maintain litter teams of 6 to 8 personnel (utilizing 3 rotating teams when possible) and limit carry shifts to a maximum of 20 minutes. Assign a dedicated radio operator to follow the team.
Helicopter Operations: Brief subjects prior to air transport, protect them from wind and rotor noise, and ensure a medical handoff briefing is provided to the aircrew.
Identification: Maintain clear visual identification distinguishing SAR volunteers from sworn law enforcement and fire service personnel.
3. Environmental Hazards
Operating in changing weather conditions and rugged biomes introduces unique environmental hazards that every searcher must monitor.
Lightning Safety
Flash-to-Bang Distance Calculation: Count the seconds between seeing lightning and hearing thunder, then divide by 5 to calculate the distance in miles. (Example: 10 seconds = 2 miles away).
Safe Shelters: Immediately seek shelter in an enclosed, wired building with plumbing or a hard-topped metal vehicle with windows rolled up.
Unsafe Locations: Tents, picnic shelters, dugouts, tall trees, and open ridges offer no lightning protection.
Hypothermia & Cold Injuries
Hypothermia occurs when the core body temperature drops below 95°F (35°C). It is one of the greatest hazards facing outdoor responders and subjects alike.
Early Signs: Goosebumps, feeling cold, and uncontrollable shivering.
Moderate to Severe Signs: Loss of fine motor skills (clumsiness with hands), stumbling, slurred speech, sluggish thinking, and mental confusion (typically when core temperature approaches 90°F / 32.2°C).
Common Cold-Related Injuries:
Frostnip: Superficial, non-freezing cold injury to the top layers of skin.
Frostbite: Freezing of actual tissue, leading to localized cellular damage.
Trench Foot (Immersion Foot): Tissue damage resulting from prolonged exposure to wet, cold conditions.
Chilblains: Inflammation of dry skin exposed to cool, damp environments.
Heat & Solar Injuries
Heat illnesses occur when body temperature rises faster than heat can be dissipated, especially during heavy exertion in high humidity.
Heat Cramps: Sudden muscle spasms caused by fluid and electrolyte loss during intense exertion.
Heat Exhaustion: Characterized by weakness, dizziness, headache, nausea, elevated heart rate, low blood pressure, and profuse sweating.
Heat Stroke (Life-Threatening Emergency): Breakdown of the body's cooling system. Body temperature can exceed 106°F (41.1°C), causing altered mental status or loss of consciousness. Requires immediate emergency cooling and medical evacuation.
Solar Injuries: Sunburn (first-degree thermal burns from UV rays) and snow blindness (retinal sunburn caused by UV glare off ice and snow).