SLSAR S.W.I.F.T

 Swiftwater Incident/Flood Team

This is a Service that is provided by Professional Volunteers and is available 24/7 through-out the North of England to anyone in difficulty at no-cost to the existing Emergency Services, Tax-payer or the Community. We will respond to Emergencies as and when requested and when the need arises.

The unit specialises in Swiftwater & technical rescue, and we utilise a wide range of extended skills, such as

Rescue Philosophy/Rescuer SafetyHydrology – Water & Flood Hazards
Personal & Team Equipment
Pre-planning, Size-up & incident Management
Communications (VHF)
Swiftwater Swimming
Throwbag Rescues 
Rope, knots and Technical Gear 
Anchors for swiftwater rescue
Mechanical Advantage
Belay Systems for swiftwater rescue
Contact Rescues
C-Spine Management
Shallow Water Techniques 
River & Flood Search Operations
Channel Crossing Options
Tension Diagonals
Inflated Fire Hose Rescues
Entrapment Drills
Weir & Vehicle Rescues 
Paddle boat handling
2 and 4 point tethered boat  and RY2 Certification 

SLSAR's Swiftwater Rescue Teams are training weekly to be able to respond to swiftwater/flooding incidents in the South Lakes Area and the whole County, were we can be of assistance to the emergency services .The Organization will if required provide lowland search & rescue on a as and when required basis.

All members of SLSAR SWRT will be trained to "Swiftwater Rescue Technician" level, as recoginzed by international bodies, which ensures those members are confident enough to enter fast moving water in difficult conditions to effect a rescue if required, either as part of a river bank based team or with the use of ropes and boats if required. Advanced training to Swiftwater Rescue Technician Advanced (SRT A) and rescues from vehicles in water will be completed as monies become available during 2011. 

In addition the Teams will be trained as Whitewater Rescue Technicians giving the team the abilty to respond to  white water rescues when called upon, and 3 members of the teams are to be trained  to ‘Water Incident Manager’ level – these have the capability to manage large-scale flood incidents or other large-scale water rescues thereby conforming to DEFRA Class C team requirements.

It is also hoped that during 2011 SLSAR will become a registered asset in the Cat B requirements of DEFRA with a secondary team deployable to anywhere in the county and the Northwest were there expertise is required.

SLSAR now believes it will have one of the best trained water rescue groups in the immediate area and is able to deploy quickly at any time, day or night. With plans to run a further course later in the year this will increase the number of qualified team members capable of Swiftwater Rescue to around 24, thereby having 2 Complete Teams on call 24/7/365.

As well as responding to incidents in South Lakes, SLSAR SWRT can be called upon to assist other rescue crews with national flood emergency responses.

Each member of the SWRT's who is committed the a water rescue will be wearing sufficient Personal Protection Equipment (PP) for the task, currently that can cost up to £1200 per rescuer. Which just goes to show that even as a volunteer organisation there is always a cost involved and fundraisng is never far from our thoughts.

so if you or your company would like to help the team please contact  us at: support@slsar.org.uk  or visit our Sponsor Appeal