Building Collapse Rescue Operation and the Activity of the Urban Search and Rescue Teams in Response, Part 1

Abstract

The Search and Rescue Teams deployed in the  disaster-prone and disaster-responding countries are  30 years old. In 2005, 15 years ago, Hungary was  the first who successfully classified at United Nations  Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs  under the INSARAG classification system for Urban  Search and Rescue teams, and we reclassified it two  times in 2012 and 2017 with the HUNOR governmental and the HUSAR voluntary rescue  organisations. Building collapse rescue operation following an earthquake requires conscious  preparation, special equipment and many practice. The author has compiled the method and toolkit of  USAR teams’ technical rescue operations from  exploration through intervention, presenting its challenges and possible steps for future  implementations. Part 1 introduces the tradition of  search and rescue operations, field assessment, field  data collection, types of building collapse, and typical  equipment of a USAR team.