Keswick MRT station, containing training rooms, operational HQ, and four-bay emergency appliance garage.
Mountain rescue services in England and Wales operate under the association of Mountain Rescue England and Wales (MREW), formerly called Mountain Rescue Council of England & Wales. The association has a number of regional mountain rescue teams, each of which is an independent charity. The team members are highly trained volunteers who are called out by the police.[1]
The Battenburg markings used by mountain rescueMountain rescue ambulance used by Bolton MRT
Voluntary mountain rescue teams in England and Wales are independent charities whose members are highly trained volunteers who are called out by the police. The police are legally responsible for land based search and rescue[3] but generally lack the resources to discharge this function effectively. Individual teams are normally known as an MRT (mountain rescue team) but some use the term SRT (search and rescue team) or MS&RT (mountain search and rescue team).[citation needed]
Individual teams are members both of the MREW and of their regional association (which is also represented at MREW). Neither MREW nor the regional associations have authority over the individual teams but provide an opportunity to discuss and agree standards, training and equipment. MREW does provide some equipment funding for MRTs both from its own funds and via a small government grant, but teams have to finance their own running costs through charity fund-raising or sponsorship. MRTs in England and Wales receive no direct government funding. The government provides access by teams to Ordnance Survey mapping.[citation needed]
The Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service has three teams – one in Scotland, one in England and one in Wales – and as part of the military is wholly government funded. They have primary responsibility for aircraft crashes on high ground, but also respond to civilian calls for assistance from hikers and climbers.
Although the primary focus of mountain rescue is to locate and evacuate injured and/or lost persons in upland environments, teams also undertake a wide range of roles which may differ from team to team:
missing person searches in lowland areas where access or terrain is difficult;
support to NHSambulance services for difficult casualty evacuation;
support to government agencies/emergency services in flood and heavy snowfall;
support to government agencies/emergency services at major incidents;
swift water rescue;
animal rescue.
Urban search and rescue is currently undertaken by the fire and rescue services as part of their statutory enablement, but at least one mountain rescue team[which?] has chosen to train in this field.[citation needed]
Each team has its own primary area of responsibility but frequently deploy outside these areas in support of other teams.
There are also regional organisations dedicated to the training of search dogs and their handlers. England has two associations, Mountain Rescue Search Dogs England (MRSDE) and the Lake District Mountain Rescue Search Dog Association (LDMRSD). Wales also has two associations the Search and Rescue Dog Association Wales (SARDA Wales) responding to incidents in North Wales and the Search and Rescue Dog Association South Wales (SARDA South Wales). Handlers must be full team members of a mountain rescue team[citation needed] and, once graded, will operate alongside that team, but can also be deployed in support of other teams.
Organisation
The association has 49 regional mountain rescue teams, each of which is an independent charity:
England
Lake District
Patterdale MRT station. The 3-storey building contains operational HQ and training facilities, whilst the farther buildings are garages for emergency appliances.Mountain rescue post, Sca Fell
The co-ordinating body for Mountain & Mine Search and Rescue Teams in the Lake District is the Lake District Search & Mountain Rescue Association:
Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search is conducted over. These include mountain rescue; ground search and rescue, including the use of search and rescue dogs ; urban search and rescue in cities; combat search and rescue on the battlefield and air-sea rescue over water.
Mountain rescue refers to search and rescue activities that occur in a mountainous environment, although the term is sometimes also used to apply to search and rescue in other wilderness environments. This tends to include mountains with technical rope access issues, snow, avalanches, ice, crevasses, glaciers, alpine environments and high altitudes. The difficult and remote nature of the terrain in which mountain rescue often occurs has resulted in the development of a number of specific pieces of equipment and techniques. Helicopters are often used to quickly extract casualties, and search dogs may be deployed to find a casualty.
Severn Area Rescue Association (SARA) or Severn Rescue is an independent, marine and land based, search and rescue organisation covering the Severn Estuary and upper reaches of the River Severn. SARA is the largest independent lifeboat service in the UK, second only to the RNLI, with 22 operational inshore lifeboats, 20 vehicles and approximately 200 personnel. They receive no funding from the RNLI.
The Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team is a voluntary organisation that functions as a search and rescue service covering the southern half of West Yorkshire. It is a registered charity entirely funded by public contributions.
Cornwall Search and Rescue Team was a volunteer organisation that provided inland search and rescue cover for the county of Cornwall, England. It has since been replaced by East Cornwall Search & Rescue Team and West Cornwall Search & Rescue Team.
Mountain Rescue Ireland is the representative body for mountain rescue services on the island of Ireland. It has eleven member organisations - ten regional mountain rescue teams and one national canine search team (SARDA). Mountain Rescue Ireland (MRI) is a member of the International Commission for Alpine Rescue (IKAR-CISA).
The Cave Rescue Organisation (CRO) is a voluntary body based in the caving area of the Yorkshire Dales in northern England. Founded in 1935, it is the first cave rescue agency in the world.
The Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team provides Search and Rescue services in and around the Scarborough and Ryedale areas of North Yorkshire, England. The team has no formal southern boundary and has carried out searches in the urban fringe areas of the East Riding of Yorkshire
Recreational caving in the United Kingdom dates back to the mid-19th century. The four major caving areas of the United Kingdom are North Yorkshire, South Wales, Derbyshire, and the Mendips. Minor areas include Devon, North Wales, and the Scottish Highlands.
The Irish Cave Rescue Organisation (ICRO) is a voluntary body responsible for cave and abandoned mine rescues within the island of Ireland. The organisation attends, manages and carries out rescues at the request of the Garda Síochána in the Republic of Ireland and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, and is responsible to both police services.
The British Caving Association (BCA) is the sports governing body for caving in the United Kingdom. It is recognised by UK Sport, Sport England and SportScotland.
Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland (MRCofS), now known as Scottish Mountain Rescue is the body which represents and coordinates mountain rescue teams in Scotland. It has 27 affiliated mountain rescue teams.
The Isle of Man Civil Defence Corps is one of the five emergency services maintained by the Isle of Man Government, to provide a range of emergency responses on the Isle of Man, an independent Crown dependency located in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland. The Corps operates under the Department of Home Affairs.
The Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team (SMRT), is a voluntary organisation that undertakes search and rescue primarily in the Swaledale and Wensleydale area of the Pennines in North Yorkshire, England. Like other mountain rescue teams, SMRT does not confine itself to the immediate area and will respond to calls by emergency services and the public alike across a broad expanse of Northern England.
Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team is a search and rescue team serving north-eastern Yorkshire and south-eastern County Durham, England. They were called out to 61 incidents in 2019 and 58 in 2020.
The Peak District Mountain Rescue Organisation (PDMRO) is a UK registered charity which was formed in 1964. The purpose of PDMRO is "to save life and alleviate distress, primarily in Upland and Mountain areas". This is achieved by conducting search and rescue missions for walkers, climbers and missing persons in and around the Peak District National Park.
The Buxton Mountain Rescue Team is a UK registered charity operating search and rescue missions from its base at Dove Holes near Buxton in Derbyshire. The team covers an area of about 400 square miles across Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire.
Mountain rescue in Wales is the search and rescue activities that occur in the mountainous and other wilderness environments in Wales. Wales is largely mountainous with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon, its highest summit. Mountain rescue teams are called out through the police, via the 999 system, to assist police, fire and ambulance. They also work closely with the Air Ambulance and HM Coastguard helicopters as well as the search and rescue dog associations and cave rescue.
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