One thing that sets our team apart is our dedication to providing the best possible care to the people and the communities in which we live work and play. To this end our team members are all professionals sharing a passion for saving lives.
Watersafe UK Search and Rescue Team is a group of people who are mostly serving full-time members of the regular emergency services. We give our time freely for training and for call-outs. Our Team members have over 150 Years cumulative experience in the Fire and Rescue Service and more than 300 Years in Hospital and pre-Hospital medical care. We also have a specialist water rescue dog section consisting of two newfoundland water rescue dogs, Boris and Tuggs. The rescue dogs are a new addition to WUKSART - over the next few months we will be training with the dogs and our intention is for them to become a fully operational part of the team.
The Vision
We aim to provide a team of search and rescue volunteers who have the required skills, experience and local knowledge as well as the necessary equipment and communications facilities to be able to be of genuine assistance to the paid emergency services across the world. We will provide this search and rescue service at any time of the day or night, anywhere, without charge, in any situation where one of the official emergency services or other approved organisations decides that their efforts would benefit from the kind of specialist support that we can offer.
The Team
WUKSART is a voluntary search and rescue to primarily serve the community of Derbyshire and the East Midlands Region when large area flooding takes place. Also the team is on standby to be deployed anywhere in the United Kingdom and worldwide when large scale flooding events occur. As we've seen over the past few years, the number of water rescue incidents both in the UK and abroad has been steadily increasing. In response to this fact we are currently developing WUKSART to conform to National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA) 1006 and 1670 standards.
The People
The team consists mainly of active serving members of the regular emergency services. All of whom are experienced in the field of search and rescue with additional skills in water and flood rescue procedures and techniques and are trained to the highest possible standards. All team members have been trained to international standards and are third party accredited by Rescue 3 International.
The Dogs
Watersafe UK Search and Rescue Team maintains a water rescue dog team. Our dogs are two Newfoundlands who go by the names Boris and Tuggs, at present we use them for demonstrations and events to raise awareness for WUKSART and water safety. They are rapidly becoming an integral part of the team as their training develops we will begin to use them for operational rescues. Our Swift Water Rescue Technicians work alongside and are assisted by the water rescue dogs. To see the dogs in Action or for more information visit our page dedicated to our water rescue dog section by clicking here - Watersafe UK Search and Rescue Dog Section
