kellyjasper.com

From Monday’s Daily News-Record:

Mock Search Trains Would-Be Rescuers

By Kelly Jasper

CRIDERS — For a girl who was never actually lost, search-and-rescue teams sure did a good job of finding 14-year-old Brandi, rescue workers said.

In a training drill deep in the George Washington National Forest, about 40 officers from area fire departments, rescue teams and police squads honed their search-and-rescue skills in a mock rescue on Sunday.

Brandi was, of course, not really lost. She is the daughter of a firefighter who, accompanied by trained officers and a radio, played the role of a child who had wandered off in the woods.

It’s a realistic situation, said Deputy Chief Ian Bennett of the Rockingham County Fire and Rescue Department.

Two months ago, a 13-year-old boy wandered from his family’s campsite at a KOA campground in Mauzy.

“He had only left to walk his dog,” Bennett said. “That sort of thing happens.”

After a 16-hour search, Dylon Mitchell, of Mathias, W.Va., and his dog were found about two miles from the campsite.

‘As Realistic As Possible’

Sunday’s simulation wasn’t so different.

“We have a victim out in the woods,” Bennett said. “Like we did at the KOA, all rescues will start at the last known location.”

That location was a cabin on a fire road off of German River Road in Criders.

A remote base camp was built nearby. The fire and rescue department’s trucks were too large to travel up the fire road to the cabin, so the teams relied on portable generators, laptops and radios.

In just minutes, a camp was assembled under big white tents. Management assigned tasks to teams of four, who scouted sectors of the forest surrounding the cabin.

Those teams covered an area of about 120 square acres, radioing back their progress to base. Dispatchers met rescuers at the scene to help work radios and log communication between the many search groups.

Several teams returned to camp and only rested for a few minutes to debrief with officers and re-hydrate before starting off on a new search.

“We let it be as realistic as possible,” Bennett said.

In this case, that meant Brandi picked where to walk, where to stop and what clues to drop.

“None of that was up to us,” Bennett said. “We try to stay on the move and clear areas as soon as we can.”

Soon enough, the rescuers pinpointed “hot spots.”

“We’re really able to narrow things down,” said Steve Powell, a firefighter and medic with the Rockingham County Department of Fire and Rescue. “We kind of have a good idea of the general area of where we think she is just based off the clues and the terrain.”

Less than an hour into the rescue, teams searching the forest by foot found clues.

At first, it was a few crumbs and a discarded juice box. Next, a coloring book. Then rescuers found a child’s toothbrush. Eventually, they found Brandi.

‘A Very Successful Mission’

On Sunday, teams assembled, searched and completed the mission in less than three hours.

“That’s what we would call a very successful mission,” Bennett said.

Of course, if the situation were real, they could have found her much faster, he said.

“In a real situation, we’d use every resource we can get our hands on,” Bennett said.

During the drill, rescuers ran multiple teams, first deploying officers from the Dayton Police Department that followed the lead of a bloodhound. The dog tracked Brandi’s scent in 45 minutes.

For the sake of the drill, rescuers didn’t disclose her location, allowing other teams to run more drills and gain experience, Bennett explained.

The drill, one of many the departments perform each season, teaches both new crewmembers and more seasoned veterans new skills.

The exercise was a joint effort of the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office and Rockingham County Fire and Rescue department. The Bergton Volunteer Fire Company, Broadway Rescue Squad, Dayton Police Department and Harrisonburg and Rockingham County Emergency Communications Center also participated.

“Training like this helps us when we’re in these situations in the future,” Bennett said.

On Sunday, the conditions were in the team’s favor. Sometimes they’re not, rescuers said.

When children are lost, “some [caregivers] will call in an hour or two, some will wait half a day,” said Janet Smith, a search management team member.

“It’s easier and safer to send us home than for a missing person to have a two-day lead. Out here, you never know what a child will do.”