October 19, 2024:

San Benito County Search and Rescue team participated in a multi-agency mock search exercise hosted by Santa Clara County Search and Rescue at Henry Coe State Park. Our team was tasked with various area search assignments, working alongside other agencies to locate 16 missing hikers from a simulated Geocaching event.

A special thank you to Santa Clara County Search and Rescue for inviting us to this valuable training event. We’d also like to extend our gratitude to the CALFIRE Hollister Air Attack team for their support. Three of our members were seconds away from taking off on the CALFIRE Firehawk to be transported to our search area when the crew was called away for a real fire emergency. They quickly exited the helicopter and watched as they responded to the call in action.

Teamwork and adaptability are what make these training sessions so valuable. Thanks again to all involved!

On July 22 2023, the San Benito County Search and Rescue team had an off-road OHV training and type qualifications at Hollister Hills State Vehicular Recreation Area. The team trained on a variety of skills and completed the days objectives.

Members of SAR trained on the use of SARTOPO

SARTOPO is a mapping tool used by Search & Rescue that allows team members to track their location, plot points, give routes/grid coordinates and more. It can be used by multiple users at once to be able to work as a team, also allowing an incident commander to have an overview picture of the situation.

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Goal: Prepare field team members to respond to a mission using SARTopo for navigation and track recording.

OBJECTIVES

1. Open a team map in the mobile app
2. Record Tracks
3. Turn on and off location sharing settings
4. Locate an assigned search area
5. Enter given coordinates, add marker and navigate to it

OTHER SKILLS

1. Working with team assignments
2. Lite radio use: Status updates to command / communicating coordinates
3. Grid search of small area assignment

Members of SBCSAR at the 2022 Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX). SAREX is the annual Northern California Search and Rescue Exercise sponsored by California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal-OES) and one or more host agencies. If you would like more information please see the link provided: https://www.sarex.org/about