(2) Urban Search and Rescue Training
Report Tokyo Fire Department, Fire Lieutenant Jun Nagamori
Assistant Fire Sergeant Ken Hatayama
The Singapore Civil Defence Academy is a spacious facility including centers to simulate fires, flash-overs or backdrafts in restaurants and apartments and to conduct the difficult life search training drills at collapsed buildings, wreckage as well as maze rooms. This location accommodates trainees from all around the world, particularly from Asia, developing international cooperation and mutual assistance in the fire service.
In addition to our two members from Tokyo, 10 trainees from Australia, 6 from Macau, 6 from Singapore (4 from the army and 2 engineers), and 3 members from the Maldives, Bhutan, and Mongolia participated, totaling 27 participants from 7 countries.
The training was composed of lectures and drills. First was a description of Singapore Civil Defence Force, followed by an outline of rescue procedures based on the guidelines of INSARAG (International Search and Rescue Advisory Group), EMS activities guidelines in Singapore and sharing international dispatch experiences of DART (equivalent to the Tokyo Fire Department Fire Rescue Task Forces) After these lectures, drills included rope rescue, breaching (techniques breaking through concrete and other surfaces), shoring (rescue using support pillars for collapsed buildings), breathing apparatus performance tests (tests of strength and ease of breath while using breathing devices), and search using audio detectors and fiber scopes.
At the end of the training a 28-hour endurance drill was carried out through the night, including drills that used trainees' mastery of rescue from elevated positions, search and rescue in collapsed buildings, and rescue from narrow tunnels.
While grateful for the opportunity to practice advanced rescue techniques in such an impressive facility, we were also faced with how great the expectation to Japanese teams' techniques would be which has already gone through actual major earthquakes or tidal waves and the great importance of international cooperation in Japan's disaster-relief efforts.
Additionally, by exchanging knowledge and training together with trainees from other countries, we feel that mutual understanding is deepened. We intend to maintain close contact so that we will be able to exchange information swiftly in the event of a disaster.
We give our heartfelt thanks for the rare chance provided to us by the training programs of the Asian Network of Major Cities 21, and intend to make full use of the knowledge from the training in the work of the Tokyo Fire Department.
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| Breaching Drill |
International Rescue Training |
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