Rescue guides

All of the guides will need to be aware of the situations that overcome their limit of resistance and psychological stability. Each person needs to auto evaluate themselves during the training sessions, in which difficult situations will be simulated such as working in very small spaces in adverse conditions. The dogs that are getting trained will also go through these types of situations progressively. The unit Leader will have to know all of the capabilities and limitations of each member. A systematic training will make the guide and the dog accept the confined spaces as a reality; this will help them to concentrate on the search and rescue work and not on the confined spaces. The search and rescue operations in closed spaces will depend, to begin with, the type of collapse that has occurred. Take for example a building that has collapsed and fallen to its side, meaning that the horizontal holes, such as the hallways are now vertical, whereas the ones that were originally vertical, such as the elevators and stairs, are now in a horizontal position. In a building that has collapsed, and where the search generally begins from the top area, can offer different access ways by neighboring basements offering openings or corridors. When a stratified collapse occurs, in which several floors have fallen on top of the other, and which often traps the victims in between them, the rescue unit will have to access their way in depending on the concrete circumstances; meaning this would either be done laterally or through holes they themselves will have to make. Obviously these are only a few different types of examples that could occur in a disaster. In the following we will point out some of the measures that need to be taken into account when it comes to search and rescue in confined spaces. The search and rescue team must have a unit Leader and a trainer or guide with the respective SAR canine. A second Leader should be responsible of controlling the exterior operations of the rest of the unit.