With the Alaska state troopers and the Haines fire department stretched thin, a new Haines Search and Rescue team allows community members with valuable outdoorsmen or medical skills to participate in rescue efforts.
The group will assist in any search and rescue efforts initiated by the troopers, including helping boaters, hunters, hikers, snowboarders, skiiers or anyone who may need assistance in an off-road emergency, said coordinator Kevin Forster.
Although Haines Search and Rescue is independent of the state, trooper Andrew Neason said he was done with the uncertainty of scrambling to find local volunteers when he needed help.
“Trusting things to luck is not the way to try and handle an emergency situation,” Neason said.
Coordinator Jenn Walsh said the old system had her calling friends in hopes someone would be willing and able to help. The fire department partially filled the gap, but a more organized team that could prioritize rescue training was needed.
So Neason helped put the pieces together to start a volunteer group of outdoorsmen and women that he and other troopers in the Haines Borough could call on. He said he can now call one person as a point of contact and work from there.
The team members are also connected to Nixle, an emergency alert system used by the Haines Borough Police Department, the state troopers and other organizations.
“We need to be able to get to people who are not on the road system with a trained team,” Walsh said.
Haines Search and Rescue officially organized in October and has about 20 members. The officers include Walsh and Forster as coordinators, Tim Holm and Chris Downer as operations officers, and Sabine Churchill and Lizi Wirak as administrators. The group meets for three-hour trainings and a one hour business meeting once a month.
“You can be a member of search and rescue but you don’t have to be a firefighter or EMT,” Forster said.
The last two trainings included basic orienteering, or land navigation, and using handheld GPS to locate hidden objects at Chilkoot State Park. In December, the group will practice using a SKED or litter to transport patients over uneven terrain.
Holm, who also works as an emergency medical technician for the fire department, described the team as a public and community need, saying skills that the Haines Search and Rescue team has or will learn is applicable to a lot of recent calls to the department.
Forster said Haines Search and Rescue is not only trying to grow in membership, but also to build its assets, learning who in town has resources, tools or vehicles the team could potentially use to better an emergency situation.
If you are interested in joining or assisting Haines Search and Rescue, email Jenn Walsh at [email protected].