“ Dr. principle of” is a world leading researcher in the field of hypothermia, and is well known to Canadians for having appeared on the Rick Mercer Report.

The workshop covered hypothermia science, extraction techniques, packaging techniques and hypothermia treatment.

Some participants signed up to be “in water subjects”.  The temperature of the Fraser River was 5 °C and 5 subjects entered the water in various levels of protection. Two of the participants were wearing only one layer of clothing and when removed from the water were shivering uncontrollably and showing the early signs of hypothermia. These participants were extracted and treated for hypothermia according to Dr. Geisbrecht’s instruction.

Note: Special Thanks to Hawkair for providing Air transportation to Vancouver, without the generous support of HawkAir Terrace SAR attendance at the workshop would not have been possible.

	Picture 1 Workshop Participants pose with Dr. Gordon Geisbric(back row-right).Terrace Search and Rescue Team members Dave Jephson and Dwayne Sheppard were two of the participants for the immersion test (Dwayne Sheppard front row –left)
	Picture 2 Immersion participants enter the water under the protection of SAR trained rescue swimmers.
	Picture 3 Cold Water immersion participant Dwayne Sheppard feels the effects of coldwater immersion. “You lose body heat 25 times faster in water, your body begins to shiver uncontrollably; when removed from the water the effects of the wind and air cool your body even more”.
	Picture 4
	Picture 5 Subjects are removed from the water using various extraction techniques, picture 5 shows one of the test subjects being removed from the water with the aid of a stretcher specially designed to float in water.
	Picture 6 When the subjects are removed from the water they are wrapped in a layer of plastic and placed in a sleeping bag to protect them from the cooling effects of the environment.
	Picture 7 The hypothermia subject is transport to a suitable location when the wet clothing can be removed, the subjects is dried and placed back into a dry sleeping bag with a re-warming device to warm the patient.
	Picture 8 The heating device is a HEATPAC personal heater available in British Columbia by Emergco Technical Solutions. The device emits warm heat to heat the hypothermia patients torso and other areas of high heat transfer i.e neck, under the arms, etc.
	Picture 9 The patients is properly packaged to prevent re-cooling, the heating device also works to re-warm the patient before being transported to hospital.

It was interesting to feel the effects of immersion in 5 degree water.  Many people are under the belief that if you are submerged in water in winter, especially if you fall through ice that you only have a few minutes to live.  The truth is that you can potential survive up to one hour or more before succumbing to the effects of hypothermia. Dr Gordon Geisbric teaches the coldwater survival techniques with the aid of the 1-10-1 principle (see below)

1-10-1

• 1 minute: it may take a minute to get control of your breathing,  Work at this first. Panic must be avoided.    In the initial plunge try to prevent your head from going under.  Obviously, if you have any choice in the matter, a slow entry is best.   Keep your mouth closed.  Rescue personnel are trained to cover their mouth and nose when they get in the water. If you breath in water you are likely to be in big trouble.
• 10 minutes: you have only about ten minutes to use your hands and arms for swimming, self rescue or to assist others rescuing you. The more active you are the less time you have: make the time count.  If you have ice claws get to the best ice (probably where you came from) and use them.  If you don’t have them, get to the best ice edge, swim your feet up behind you, lift your upper body on your elbows and use frog kicks or double leg kicks to push you out on the ice.  It may take several tries. Click here for more on clawless self rescue.
• 1 hour:  IF you have flotation (a life jacket, float coat, float suit, etc) you have about an hour before you become unconscious.  If you don’t have a way to keep your head out of the water without swimming you may drown in as little as 10 minutes as a result of swimming incapacitation.  In some cases, people without floatation have saved themselves by letting their wet sleeves freeze to the ice: holding them on the surface until rescue arrived.  Draping yourself over a half submerged iceboat has worked as well. As a practical matter a shore mounted rescue is likely to take half an hour or more which is one of several reasons why flotation is so important.

Join Terrace SAR and other rope rescue enthusiast for a weekend of rope rescue scenarios and training.

Date: September 9 – 11, 2011

Location: Northwestern BC

More info to be announced closer to event date.

Contact: Dwayne Sheppard 250-615-6968   dsheppard@citywest.ca

Highlights include:
• Learn rope rescue and rigging techniques
• Work in a friendly learning environment
• Share ideas and techniques with fellow team members

Registration form: NITRO 2011 Registration Form NITRO 2011 Registration Form

NITRO 2011 poster

TERRACE SEARCH and Rescue is one of the first groups in the north to have a new avalanche rescue system to help find skiers and others buried in snow.

View this PDF to read the full story – Terrace Standard story new avalanche equipment

Published: February 19, 2011 6:00 AM
Updated: February 19, 2011 6:57 AM

MEMBERS of Terrace Search and Rescue spent a recent weekend earning avalanche rescue skills and techniques.

The Organized Avalanche Response Team Member course provides participants with the skills necessary to safely respond to avalanche incidents as part of an inter-agency team in potentially unstable terrains, reports Dwayne Shepherd, one of the lead volunteers with Terrace Search and Rescue who also acts as a training officer.

“The course focuses on avalanche characteristics; awareness skills, safe travel, organizational structure and team work in both classroom and field settings,” he said.

“Techniques for beacon use and probing are also covered for an organized response setting. The course is intended for SAR volunteers who will respond in potentially unstable terrain.”

Deaths caused by avalanches have heightened the need for people to be more aware of their surroundings and to also be better equipped to deal with emergencies.

Published: October 18, 2010 10:00 AM

A MAN reported missing while mushroom picking last Saturday has been found safe and sound.

The 78-year-old local man was reported missing after he went out 8 a.m. that morning and hadn’t returned by 9 p.m. that night, report Terrace RCMP.

A search of the area south of the airport was initiated immediately with assistance from the Terrace Search and Rescue and the Terrace Police Dog Unit but was called off due to poor lighting conditions, a police release continued.

The search resumed, Sunday morning and Search and Rescue found the man uninjured and in good health at approximately 1 p.m.

Aage Engholm Two family members perish in separate road accidents

ONE OF the biggest search efforts in several years ended with the discovery of the body of a man missing from Kitwanga for four days last week.

The body of Aage Engholm, 81, was found inside his red SUV in a pond-like slough off Hwy16, east of Terrace, May 17.

“It was probably one of our most active ones (searches) over the years,” said Dave Jephson of Terrace Search and Rescue.

Engholm had left his Kitwanga home at 2:30 p.m. May 13 for the drive to Terrace to attend the funeral step grandson Alan Degerness. Degerness, 46, was killed May 9 just west of Kitwanga when the motorcycle he was driving left Hwy16 and entered a ditch.

Engholm was heading back to Terrace, his sister-in-law said, and it is a trip he makes often as he has homes in both Terrace and Kitwanga, but when he failed to make the funeral on May 15 the family knew something was terribly wrong.

Jephson said search and rescue members were out looking for four days after police called for the group’s assistance.

Engholm’s extended family was looking for him with Kitwanga relatives walking west toward Terrace and Terrace relatives walking east.

A family member of Engholm’s from Kitwanga found the vehicle, while walking the road and checking possible hiding spots, about 10 minutes before search and rescue arrived May 17, said Jephson.

He flagged down search and rescue and told them he found the vehicle submerged under about a foot under water, said Jephson.

Fresh tire tracks could be seen leaving the highway down about 15 feet into the ditch and, further in toward the slough area, the red roof of the vehicle was visible, said Jephson.

Search and rescue and water rescue were ready to assist with retrieving the vehicle but the RCMP called in its dive team instead, he said.

Several groups and people were involved in the search, said Jephson.

Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA), another branch of search and rescue, were involved with the aerial search and brought in its members, including trained spotters, from Burns Lake and Smithers.

Trained spotters are always required when an air search goes on, he said.

The air search continued for three days and then the RCMP plane came in from Prince Rupert but neither plane found anything from the air, he said.

“On Monday, we weren’t looking for a red car anymore, we were looking for branches broken, tire tracks, the undercarriage of a car,” he said.

Search and rescue used its two new rhinos in its efforts too.

“As the search managers, we’re pleased with the participation from search and rescue and the other agencies, the police, other search and rescue groups, CASARA, the support from the Hazelton detachment and their officers, which were very professional, very courteous and the family,” said Jephson.

“The family was huge in all of it, very supportive with everything.”

Spokesperson Const. Cindy Nunes of Terrace RCMP said that weather conditions, road conditions and the vehicle itself had been ruled out as contributing factors to the accident, as told to her by Sgt. Don Murray of the local highway patrol.

Environmental Conditions were right for the search and removal of a truck that entered Kalum Lake in 2009.  Ice was off the lake, the water level is low and the visibility is the best it is going to get.  The team had a precise location of where the vehicle entered the water but did not know how far the vehicle traveled underwater. The water depth quickly drops to 50 – 100 – 150 feet; at the lakes center the water depth can reach to 450 feet deep.   The Terrace Water Rescue (TWR) used a SONAR donated last year to the team by Progressive Ventures and an underwater camera to help divers locate the vehicle.  The first dive to 72 feet did not locate a vehicle and the divers began to worry that the truck was deeper.  Visibility at 72 feet was about 24 inches (2 feet). On the second dive, the divers located the truck at 40 feet, visibility and conditions were better at this depth. The divers placed two a 500 lb lift bags on the vehicle, which lifted the vehicle out of the water.  The water rescue boat, towed the truck to the boat launch and Pronto Towing pulled the vehicle from the water. The truck was damaged beyond repair.

Considering the steep embankment, distance the truck traveled and the fact it entered the water, the occupants are very fortunate to have escaped without major injuries. We have seen accidents like this in the past, worse case scenario, its an extended search for a missing person or a body recovery.

Click here to download a PDF of the volunteer application form