Tri-County Ground Search and Rescue NB

Search Tactics and FTL courses.

Last night, members participated in an in-depth session on search tactics, patterns, and techniques. Topics included hasty searches, grid searches, contour searches, perimeter searches, purposeful wandering,sound sweeps, attraction and confinement methods, clue awareness, and matching the appropriate search pattern to the situation. Effective searching is far more than simply walking through the woods. It requires planning, discipline, communication, and an understanding of how lost persons behave.

We also completed the classroom portion of our new Field Team Leader (FTL) course, which was delivered over Tuesday night and Wednesday night. Combined with practical scenario evaluations and previous Field Team Member experience, this training will help us add up to 8 new FTLs to our roster, strengthening our operational capacity and leadership depth.

A huge thank you to the instructors who volunteered their time to develop and deliver this training. The continued growth of our team depends on members who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with others.

This weekend, TCGSAR was in Miramichi delivering our Extrication Course on Saturday, followed by our First 15 Minutes and Stop the Bleed courses on Sunday.

Members gained hands-on experience with modern rescue equipment and tactics, including our Hypokit system, titanium split litters, MULE II wheel systems, and Quick Rescue Tarps. A major focus was moving away from prolonged backboard use and adopting patient packaging and movement techniques that align with current medical evidence and modern prehospital care practices.

During the First 15 Minutes course, participants practiced patient assessment, passing MIST reports to Paramedics over mutual aid channels, and assigning critical roles such as Field Team Leader, Medical Lead, and Scribe. The focus was on what sets teams up for success in those critical first moments after locating a subject.

The weekend concluded with Stop the Bleed training, where members qualified in the use of CoTCCC-approved tourniquets, hemostatic gauze, wound packing, and bleeding control techniques.

Search and Rescue methods are evolving, and so are we. Thank you to MGSAR for their hospitality and for a great weekend of training and collaboration.

Yesterday, our team took to Silver Lake Sackville with a larger group of members to get valuable hands on time with our boats and marine operations capabilities.

Members had the opportunity to practice boarding operations, launching drones directly from our boats, and utilizing our AquaEye with a diver and floating members in the water. Training also included man overboard and body recovery scenarios, extricating members from the small islands around Silver Lake, and simulating the deployment of search teams to remote areas only accessible, or more easily reached, by boat.

This type of realistic training ensures our members continue building the skills and interoperability needed to support search and rescue operations across New Brunswick.

TCGSAR is proud to be able to bring multiple boats and specialized resources to bear when activated by RCMP or EMO.

A huge thank you to the boat owners on our team who continue to make training and operations like this possible by providing their vessels, equipment, and expertise. A special thank you as well to Cedric for planning and coordinating the day’s training.

Stay tuned over the next few days for a video from yesterday’s training.

Wednesday night, TCGSAR held a training night focused on Discord and how we will be using it moving forward for online training, meetings, sharing training materials, and improving communication across the team.

This platform will allow us to move away from worrying about MS Teams accounts, while giving us more flexibility and better communication options for our various subcommittees such as Drone, Medical, K9, and more.

We were also fortunate to have Christina Douglas from Greater Fundy Ground Search And Rescue join us to present on the Mental Health Team resources available to NBGSARA teams. Mental health support is an important part of emergency services and volunteer response, and we are grateful to have these resources available to our members.

Thank you to everyone who attended and continues to help strengthen our team both operationally and personally.

Early this morning members of TCGSAR met for our annual Spring Clean Up of Findlay Boulevard in Riverview, helping clean the sides of one of the area’s most travelled roads.

This is one small way we can give back and say thank you to the communities that continue to support our team throughout the year.

A huge thank you to our volunteers who gave up part of their Saturday morning to help keep nature just a little bit cleaner.

Today a small part of TCGSAR’s boat team got two of our boats in the water to ensure they are operational and ready to respond when needed. It also gave some of our newer boat operators valuable time at the helm gaining experience on the water.

This was great preparation ahead of June 6th when we will be bringing out our larger boats and many more members for a full day of boat operations training. Training topics will include boarding and disembarking procedures, loading and unloading patients, navigation, man overboard drills, and other critical operational skills.

A big thank you to everyone who came out today to help keep our marine team response ready, and a special thank you to Cedric for, as always, providing his boats and expertise to help make this training possible.

This weekend TCGSAR held the final portion of our Call Out Qualified course, adding 7 more members to our on-call operational roster.

Completing this 1.5 day course was only one part of the process. Prior to being added to our activation list, these members were also required to complete a self study package, ICS 100, First Aid certification, and attend previous team training sessions to ensure they were prepared to operate safely and effectively during real-world Search and Rescue activtions.

Throughout the weekend members worked through critical skills including probability of detection, GPS and map & compass navigation, search tactics, command post and trailer familiarization, operational procedures, and much more.

A huge thank you to our new members for their dedication and willingness to continue learning, and to our instructors who took time away from their own weekend to pass along knowledge and experience that helps strengthen our team and our response capability.

Always a good day when 3 teams collaborate!

Last night, TCGSAR held a training night focused on debriefing our recent Mock Evacuation exercise at. Members reviewed what went well throughout the exercise along with areas where we can continue to improve as a team moving forward.

We also discussed the RCMP-issued evacuation supply boxes and how they would be utilized should we ever be involved in a real-world evacuation, helping ensure more of our membership are seamlessly ready to assist when needed.

To wrap up the evening, one of our members Louis C who has completed the entire Appalachian Trail (AT) provided a detailed presentation on preparation for operating in increasingly warmer temperatures, covering gear selection, hydration, nutrition, preparation, and physical fitness considerations for prolonged field operations.

Training nights like this continue to strengthen our operational readiness while allowing members to learn from real-world experience and each other.

Stay tuned as this weekend we have a Call Out Qualified course, and some members in Saint John teaching Extrication to RVGSAR