SARCast S3 Ep1 - Tactical Tim, earthquakes and Ben spends! - SARCast - A Search and Rescue Podcast

Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Welcome to Sarcast Season three, Episodeone. On this episode we have a
tactical commander and Search and Rescue medicallead. We discussed the journey into star
and what it's like being in theambulance service. Later on, we are
joined by mister Ben who is goingto go over some hot new stories from
around the world and we dive intohis latest gear purchases. Remember we're always

(00:27):
looking for new guests, topics anddiscussions to be had on the podcast,
So why not drop us a line, reach out ya our socials or join
the discussion over on our dispoord.Thanks for listening, right, I'm now

(00:50):
joined by a special guest who isgoing to introduce himself in a second.
So, Hello, who are you? Where do you come from, Evening
Luke? My name's Tim Hargraves.I come from a couple of different places,
but I'm currently based over in loughburand Leicestershire Magic. So what do

(01:11):
you do? What part of searchand rescue do you come from? So
I'm part of a lowland rescue team. Are relatively new to it. I've
been in about three years and Iwas brought in as a specialist, not
as part of a normal team recruitmentprocess. I was brought in to become
a medical lead. They'd run outof medical leads. The previous one I'd
retired and they didn't have anybody andLeicestershire Search and Rescue contacted me through a

(01:37):
passing conversation in a corridor at workand they said, oh, what are
you up to these days? Nota lot brilliant, Come down and let's
have a chat and see what youcan do. So I'm the medical lead
for Leicestershire Search and Rescue. Aspart of the deal of me doing that,
I wanted to become a search technicianbecause in my head, you can't
lead a team if you don't knowwhat they do. So, yeah,

(01:57):
I have a really good I wanteda really good understanding of what they get
up to as a search tech andwhat Loan and Rescue was all about.
Oh perfect, It sounds like youdefinitely got your own Paul to get into
there. Yeah, definitely. Soyou touchline that your day job? What
does that entail? So day job? I've got a really fancy title at

(02:19):
the moment. I'm a tactical commander, a paramedic with East Midlands Ambulance Service.
It's kind of got two strings tothe bow. My day job is
I run the daily operations for Leicestershireon the point of contact for all the
health community and I the other sideof that job is that I respond to
a major incidents. So it allcame out of probably the lead from the
Manchester inquiry is around having people thatare able to command scenes and our available

(02:45):
to deploy. So yeah, sotwo strings students to my bow. You've
got me. They're sitting there waitingfor something big to happen and hopefully that
doesn't the other side of the jobis running the daily divisional stuff. I
say division. It's the County ofLeicestershire that we look after, okay,
so not a small space, no, No, fairly big, fairly big
patch that we cover. Oh that'sawesome, So I guess that involved.

(03:08):
Do you get out of the officemuch these days or yeah? So we
split it in two different ways.Each county does it slightly differently. But
my team there's two of us onone man's the desk and runs things from
the computers and is the point ofcontact, and then the other one is
available for scene incidents. Not alwaysthe big jobs that attract the media attention.

(03:29):
But sometimes it's the scene command ofmaybe two or three hundlences all in
one place that just needs someone justto coordinate things. That's brilliant, that
sounds well varied and exciting on bothends of the So I guess that that
works quite well with such a rescuein terms of Yeah, so that's kind

(03:52):
of how I that's kind of howI got into it. So prior to
them pulling my arm in the corridorand saying why didn't come and join us,
I had talks with the chairman atthe time about housing their instant command
unit at one of our stations,because it was where we keep big vans
and he had a big van andwe needed somewhere to keep it that would
keep it warm and drawing. SoI knew of them. I've got a

(04:15):
relatively good understanding of what the searchand rescue process is. I've been involved
in the mountain rescue myself as beingrescued by Mountain Rescue a good number of
years ago, and that probably firstpiqued my interest. Nothing we did wrong,
it was just one of those thingsthat went wrong and involved people being
carried off and mountain after a fall. So I've been involved. I started

(04:41):
assisting and treating the casualty. ThenMountain Rescue and the police arrived. The
old man in Conniston and then theypulled us up the hill. So he
had a really good idea of whatMountain Rescue was about. They'd taken us
to how going and have a lookat the Mountain Rescue buildings. I think
it was the one in amble Sidethat we went to go and have a
lookout. And I was quite interested, but it didn't really know that Lowland
Rescue existed, and knew my crazycousin did a little bit of work around

(05:08):
Lowland Rescue Luke but and I actuallywent to him for some advice and that
it was like, right, I'vebeen involved in this, and they're talking
about joining the committee and they're doingabout this, and he said, take
it, really nice and steady,just join the team, work your way
up. I didn't listen to anyof that. Within within six months of

(05:28):
the year, I was part ofthe committee that was that makes the decisions
and leads the team on a widerbasis. That's where I'm stopping. I'm
quite happy with what I'm doing now. That's good to hear, good to
hear. I mean that's I mean, that's the proper deep end. That
is really the deep end. Butit's good. It's really good that you're
you're you're in there doing the doingand by the sounds of it, shaping

(05:54):
the team for the better. Yeah, hopefully. So the way the way
that we run our team obviously wetake the direction from Lowland Rescue, although
we're a charity in our own right, and last year Load and Rescue came
out with FREK three would be theminimum and would replace the old Lowland Rescue
first Responder. I was really excitedwith that. We've pushed a few people

(06:15):
out to get FREK three so firstresponded Emergency Care level three. The downside
of that is it is an expensivecourse and you've got to get your volunteers
to take a week off work,go away, do some training and come
back. So that was the trainingside sorted. And in the way that
most charities work, we also doa lot of event cover, so we

(06:39):
will try and use our medics togo off and do things like we've just
done. There's the Ashuby twenty Race, which is a precursor to London.
It's a twenty mile race and ourmedics were included, myself were out there
providing that medical cover. Oh brilliant. I guess that's a good way of
bringing money in as well. Yeah. Yeah, And the fact that you've
got an external qualification that's recognized yourvalue your volunteers. It's got added value

(07:03):
that you can go to your eventorganizers. We've got these qualifications. The
downside to doing something like FRECT threeand for us being volunteers is you may
not always be available when when ajob comes in. So the stars have
to align. You have to haveyour FRECT free qualification. You have to

(07:24):
be available for a call. Acall's got to come in. That's fine,
Sorry that ted like these does likegetting involved. So the stars need
to align in terms of you've gotto have your FRECT three volunteers that are
available for a search. They haveto be tipped out for a search should

(07:44):
somebody come in. They have tobe around when we find someone. And
that casualty needs to have and needsto require that level of assistance rather than
just a blanket round and hand backover to the police. Yeah. One
of the things that Leicestershire did.I can't hold my hands up and take
the credit for this one. Thiswas already set up when I was there

(08:05):
when I started. Is that wehave a community first Responder scheme and these
are these can be set up byany groups, but we use our medics
and we try and encourage our medicsto go through and become community first responders
because they get the exposure to respondingto nine calls on low speed travel normal
road speed. They arrive, theyoften arrived before the ambulance service arrive,

(08:31):
and they confide the initial treatment.I have taken the plunge and in the
last couple of months, I've becomea community first responder to myself, which
is a bit like a policeman becominga special in terms of a paramedic comes
to work and gets paid. Icome to work dressing blue as a community
first responder and do it for free. But the reason I do that is

(08:52):
that I can then use my paramedicskills to mentor the community responders coming through.
They get the exposed to the patients, and then the casualties that we
find with Lowland Rescue then get abetter level of care because you've got people
that are experienced in casualty care andaren't relying on knowledge that they did two
and a half years ago. Yeah, it's really good, and we're really

(09:15):
well supported by the local amer I'vegot to say that, but you know,
we are really supportive. We've gotan area training officer in Emma.
She's brilliant. She gets in touchand keeps us updated with what's going on.
She We're just recruiting some news communityfirst responders that have already either got
FRECT three or being pushed to gothrough for FREC three once the funding arrives.

(09:39):
And I suppose that's probably one ofthe biggest things being a charity is
trying to find that that funding forthat level of training. I think it's
around about seven hundred pounds for aweek course. Yeah no, yeah,
no, from from our team.It's Yeah, it's very expensive, like
all things like medical water the samecup of a price stag, which is

(10:01):
why you have to find someone ora nice company to sort of help you
out, which is always Definitely.I think we've been turned down for four
grunts in the last six months fortrading purposes, so we'll keep grying.
We'll get it somehow. Brilliant SoI guess what training did you do to

(10:22):
become a search technician then so Ijoined February and the February beginning of March
twenty twenty, something else happened aroundabout that level of time and the world
got locked down. So I drewon a lot of my knowledge, so
I used to I join the AirCadets at thirteen. I left when I
was a haughty two. I hungaround a fair bit and I was I

(10:46):
was an expedition leader with them,so I had a lot of outdoors experience
with taking groups out anyway. ButI was lucky enough to join Cheshire virtually.
It was some of the first virtualtraining I'd ever done, and so
I did the virtual training with Cheshireand then I was taken out by the
team when when it was allowed togo out and do stuff, maybe about
six months later. In between thelockdowns, we got out. We went

(11:09):
through a training exercise and put methrough my paces that way, so I
didn't fit am a normal cohort oftraining and doing these lectures. It was
all online. It was really weird. I was talking to people that I'd
never ever met before. There wasnobody. I think there's one person from
my team that had joined at thesame time and was doing it the same

(11:31):
way, but it was it wasreally weird. It was really weird in
terms of the medical experience. Ifto become a paramedic now it's practically all
going off to university, and evenif you're an in house paramedic, it's
university training as well. I joineda little bit before university, So I've

(11:52):
worked my old way up, sofor anybody's listening that it is of a
similar age. I've worked threat myway up through patient transport. I was
an aubulanced TECHSI and then I didmy paramedic in house training and then made
the jump into becoming a paramedic teamleader. And I've had some sort of
management experience or role for the lastalmost blimey fifteen sixteen years. Now,

(12:16):
Wow, this is some some experiencethat look at I know you don't look
at ye little baby face across thescreen here. So we've covered what we
did in a team. We've talkedabout your day job. I mean,
what vehicles do you get to goin and have a play with. Yeah,

(12:39):
so we within the team, we'vegot toy to high looks that we
use as a four by four.We've got a old I think it was
a Yorkshire Amblance Good Scout which isa standard FRV base vehicle that we use
and we use both of those markedup vehicles so orange and silver checkers for

(13:00):
our CFR responding because that then pushesthe word out around Lowland Rescue. Yeah,
yeah, definitely. We got toget people to understand. Yeah,
you've got to people need to understandwho we are and what we're about.
We've got our own ICU in termsof vehicles that that's round about it.
We don't have some of the fancykit that other teams have. We do
have a partnership with our If youknow Leicestershire, it's not very rugged,

(13:24):
it is quite rural, but thereis one park which is quite large and
we've got a really good that's theBradgate Park and we've got on a good
agreement with them and we quite oftenget a call to go and assist them
while if someone's fallen while we're waitingfor the ambulance to arrive, and we
will go up and recover the patient. We have we call a brand litter,

(13:46):
so it's basically it's a stretcher onwheels that we can move and you
carry people up and down hills.Although we have used the back of a
low loader trying to think what itwas now low loader landrover, open back
and we managed to get a patientin there, secured and then very slowly

(14:07):
down the hill nice for the waitingambulance and they were like, wow,
that's awesome. It was good funbecause I got to drive travel in the
back as well. So just touchingon Leicestershire, you say it's a lot
of rural so that must be achallenge when you get bad weather conditions and
like that up there. Yeah,I must make we've not had really bad

(14:28):
I'm going to kind of think whattime of the year it is. We've
not handing back, we've not hada bad winter, We've not had some
some bad weather for a while.I suppose the biggest thing that we all
have is flooding. But our townsdon't generally flood. It's normally the fields
and what have you, and we'requite low lying. Yeah, we do

(14:48):
work with the local resilience for them, so we're part of the that.
So if because we've got four byfour vehicles, if there is an issue
when it comes to getting out topeople that are requiring assistance, the ambulance
service can call on us alongside ourfour by four rescue colleagues, and we'll
go out and we'll support, andwe'll get people to the right places,

(15:11):
and we can pick up and carrypatients should we need to. I want
to say, Carrie, we don'thave an ambulance. We did acquire an
ambulance. It was donated to us, but we ended up selling that when
we weren't aiming to become an ambulanceservice or a private ambulance service. We
sold that in terms of funding tokeep us going through COVID. Nice.

(15:31):
Nice ask it. We like itwhen people get donated vehicles because it's amazing
what happens to them. They getrecycled or sold on to help the team,
which is which is great. Yeah, okay, So we had some
questions in from from some people,which was tips on first aid in star
of in terms of we've talked aboutFRECK. I guess is there anything else

(15:54):
that people who want to start outin search and rescue or so ants their
training in any way? Yeah?Depending, you need to talk to the
team. Really. So, Ican't speak for other areas like k rescue,
mountain rescue, but certainly with LowlandRescue. There is the Operational First
Aid, which is which is basicbut would give you a degree of confidence.

(16:18):
Attend the training sessions. Show someinterest if you're within a team that
has a CFR scheme, so thosecommunity first responders then show some interest to
get out, have some experience.CFRs can get ride alongs on ambulances,
so they get even more exposure andseeing things. Show an interest. Follow

(16:40):
the routes that your team follows.So I know FRECK three isn't you.
I know teams jumped with it beforeLowland Rescue said this is the standard that
we want you to go to.I held my nerve and we waited for
that. But if there are qualificationsout there and then you can upscale that.
I've got a FREK four technician.Is her day job is in the

(17:02):
Army. She's the Army of fundingher to be a FRECK four. I
can use those skills. Once you'vegot them, I can use them.
I suppose tips that's probably the trainingthat the biggest tips is stay calm.
It's sometimes you see something that's absolutelydrastic, You're like, okay, here

(17:22):
we go. You have to takea breath before you start, and if
you do start to struggle. Allthe biggest thing you can do is take
a breath and then go back toyou eat your basics and go okay,
I've got lost and then just checkour way breathing circulation again and you can
do that, and that just buideyou a little bit of breathing time and
work together. Don't just be theonly medic in your team. Use the

(17:45):
medics you've got about. So I'vegot a couple of guys that have just
joined us. They are once atechnician and one's a paramedic, one's a
training world. So the technician isa training paramedic within my own trust.
There's a technician that's joined us.She's moved across from somewhere over towards Westmint.
I can't remember which team it was. Now she'll she'll shout at me

(18:07):
stuff. Um no it wasn't stuff, but anyway, yeah, on which
team she was in, and she'llshout at me for it. But use
those skills that you've got and usethose people then to to feed that knowledge
and those people that are interested inbecoming medics and understanding a little bit more
that then do it that you don'thave to come in as a prehospital clinician
into a team. You can workyour way up through it. I can't

(18:30):
guarantee you'll get a paramedic course.That really expensive, but you could definitely
get FRECK three and the exposure toother casualties. Yeah, that's really really
helpful tips there. Um okay,So we had a love question in which
was about kit for sex rescue.Um, anything in particular that you would

(18:53):
yeah, it must have keep itlying. So when I joined the there
was a there was a rescue standardbag and it was massive, and somebody
told me that I had to carryit on an exercise. It didn't go
very far because it was just tooheavy and it was one bag for everything.
So I suppose if I talk aboutteam kit and then personal kit.

(19:15):
Soin kit we rationalized it. Iam of an era that remembers Dad's army,
So our team now carry god freebags. I've got green bags.
These are green bum bags which havereally basic bandage is basic pharyngeal airway,
so the little cheeves that fitting insidethe people's mouths. We carry those some

(19:37):
really basic stuff. But every teamthat goes out as a search, the
allocated medic will carry one of those. If you've got someone that is a
freck three, they'll get a redgodfree bag thrown at them as well,
so they supplement. They've got somenasal airway, so they've got some you
can upskill your airway. They've gotsome observation bits and pieces in there as
well, so you can take andget a better unders standing what your casualties

(20:00):
doing. And then that massive,great big bag we broke down into two.
So we have a response bag whichhas got our away bag ralth masks
in and then we have a traumabag which has attraction splint some Sam splints.
They are brilliant Sam splints. I'venever seen and certainly in civy life
I had to play with them throughthe air cadets and IF medics, but

(20:26):
to actually get my hands on anduse them, I love them. I
think they're brou and all the traumakit will sit in there. We do
carry some torniquets not attached to us, but they sit in the bag.
The problem with torniquas is you've gotat eat for them to be actually usable,
you need to be there when ithappens. The casualties we're going to

(20:48):
find through load and rescue are unlikelyto benefit from us carrying a tornique because
they've been missing for some time.So unless they've become injured and then we
find them. Some of the kitlike that we carry that for when we
get stopped or something happens in frontof us. We also carry and this
this is vehicle based. Now inthe vehicles we carry internox, so it's

(21:11):
a pain relieving gas that we havean agreement with each monse ambulance service around
consumables as well as the CFR side. It's a method memorandum up of understanding,
that's the words here. It wasan AMOU where we we can exchange
gases and exchange kit that we usethat they have brilliant so that we are

(21:36):
freck three medics do an additional bolton and then they can do things like
internox, which is which is reallygood for those characterties that we find certainly
falls and things. When we've gotthat arrangement with Bradgate Park, we'll tip
out. We can give antonox wainpain relieving gas, hand them over to
the paramedics to target by and theygot to our spiral and then we go

(21:56):
home. Not nice. It's goodwhen when you can get that MU with
the trust. Yeah, and againI can't. That was all in place
before I started. It is upfor anewal because they need to be reviewed
every now and again. But it'sbrilliant. It works, um and certainly
with our cfsking doing more and morenow, we'll just go from strength to

(22:19):
strength and build that relationship. Brilliant. Um any any tip kit for personal
use, personal use, personal kit? Yeah, so let me just because
I did make some notes hang on, um, Yes, a personal kits.

(22:41):
If you're going to carry a personalkit, it is personal. You're
not carrying it to use for useon the casualty. So literally, a
couple of bandages, some parasits moreli proproofal for yourself as long as you
can take it. Don't be dishingthose out. It opens a whole world
of hate. Officially, you don'tneed to be carrying massive, great big

(23:02):
bag lth mask and things because theteam should be able to provide that.
We're there to provide a service.It will be there, so it's liot
quite literally the little bits and thingsthat you might need. We're just coming
into that time of year when ticksare a thing. Yeah, certainly we've
got a lot of bucking up inthe our local woodlands and parks. So
if you've got a little card thatbecause you can just to come out or

(23:25):
some tweezers understand how to take itout first, but you can carry those.
They're quite useful certainty for when youget home and go where's that you're
to put my gators one? Ithink I think the idea is just keep
it, keep it. You don'twant to be carrying loads of kit around.
You don't need to be carrying it. So if it's a personal maybe

(23:48):
something I don't know, hand size, a pouch on either your tack vest
or your belt kit or in yourrucksack whatever you carry. Just something really
basic, really nice, nice,nice nice good. Yeah, well we
do something similar is yeah, justkeep it simple as yeah, definitely something

(24:08):
to perk you up, something tonot the pain. And then yeah,
maybe if you've got a particular typeof plaster or bandage or tall in terms
of like or something when you whenyou say plasters, I just we do
a fair bit of walking, Sosomething like Compede, other brands are available,
but yeah, something as something isgood like that. Blister plasters are

(24:32):
normally really quite useful yeah, yeah, cool. Um, so your experience
must have really helped with SAR andjessup sort of integrating all of that side
of things. Yeah. So interestingly, I'm also part of the local team
that teaches jesse to the Police ForeignAmbulance. So I tell you didn't know

(24:55):
that. So so I now,I chuckled, I saw the as questions.
Yes, so I now attend aspart of the ambulance contingent. So
JESSIP, in its truest form canonly be JESSIP if there are police Foreign
Ambulance in the house and are onthe course and are trading it. JESSIP
stands for and I've got This isall used to stand for the proper mouthful

(25:18):
the Joint Joint Emergency Interoperability Program,so that this all came around from probably
not nine to eleven, it wasthe London bombings and around that time,
going through all these major incidents,the biggest thing was that people don't talk
to each other, or when theydo talk to each other, we don't

(25:41):
understand the language. And he summedit up really nicely. When we're talking
about first aid kits, keep itsimple. We love t LAS three letter
acronyms in both my day job,my previous volunteering with the Cadets and certainly
in the Star World search and rescue. Keep it simple and understand and around

(26:02):
getting involved knowing the people you workwith. So we have a really good
relationship with Leicestershire Police. They valueus when they're putting boots on the ground
and they in turn we they supportus with where we keep our vehicles and
what have you. Nice now,certainly with load and rescue, the police
will normally take that lead, butit doesn't harm if there are other agencies

(26:25):
involved to get involved in those conversationsand share the risk. We are the
specialists at searching for people. Wecan be the specialists depending on where they
are about removing people from tough toughground. Certainly when you look at our
Mountain Rescue colleagues, better bread andexactly what they do, and quite often
that the Ambulance Service you'll see onthe updates, certainly for the Peak District,

(26:48):
the Ambulance Service yet or yeahs oremails have called them out just to
go and fetch somebody and start treatment. So they're the specialists, so they
don't need to understand the risks andthe issues with moving people, and it's
about keeping language really really simple,which I'll probably just waffled on far too
much, but it is about keepingthat language simple, making sure that everybody's

(27:10):
look at each other. Yes,I know you're not even agreeing, but
do you do you understand what Isay? When we're going to use a
brand carrier and we're going to usethis and this, and we again get
the patient down, and then we'llset up our little regular and we'll keep
the patient in there until they untilthey're drawing safe and someone comes to collect
them, it's about understanding actually we'regoing to use it's a structure with two

(27:30):
wheels on. It takes three orfour people to move it safely, and
we'll need to rotate people around.So if you've got anybody that's happy to
help us, it's about talking andunderstanding. I hope I made that clear.
If that makes sense. I supposethe only other thing is about understanding

(27:53):
the limitations of your environment. Sowhen we work in austere environments in search
and rescuing, yes we've got allthese fancy kit in the vehicles. Sometimes
that can take fifteen to twenty minutesto get to you. YEA. So
It's about understanding is what is possibleand know the limits of your own experience

(28:18):
and skills, because in a realemergency, the ambulance service will be there.
If you've got someone in a cardiacarres situation, don't think you can
handle it by yourself. There areother people that will come and support you.
And certainly in the Smlands we havethe Spland's Intermediate Care Scheme, which
is very large bunch of doctors thatwill tip out and provide prehospital care,

(28:45):
well hospital care at the roadside,and they do some really good stuff.
So know the limitations of your training, know the limitations of the kit that
you've got, and don't be afraidto shout for help. Yeah. I
think that's sound advice there, sobrilliant. All right, well, thank
you so much Tim for joining us. Don't worry. Cheers, Luke,
Thanks, hie bye bye bye.I'm now joined by Ben. Mister Ben.

(29:18):
Hello Ben, how are you?Hello? Luke? Yeah, I'm
doing well. I'm I'm not canceledor being retired. I'm still around.
You're still Yeah, You're just hidingin the background there, aren't you.
Yeah? Yeah, all good withyou? Yes, mate, Yeah,
busy as always seems to be thetheme with me. But but yeah,

(29:40):
how about yourself, what you've beenup to? Yeah, Yeah, generally
busy searching riscue type of stuff andtraining side of what I do. So
it's enough to keep me busy longwith the full time job. Like many
of our listeners, I'm trying toall out. Yeah, yeah, definitely
sweet. Right, So we shouldwe get into it? Yeah, what

(30:02):
do you want to do? Then? Well should we? So we so
we do some news, some newsor I'm sure there's some news about yeah,
yeah, all right, well let'shead into the news section. So,
big thing that happened recently was theTurkey Syria earthquake. Um, a
bit of a international search and rescueeffort. That was seven seven point eight

(30:26):
magnitude earthquake which struck off the wellsort of Turkey Syria border, wasn't it.
It's um, it's huge, Yeah, that's um. Yeah. He
always when you see those kind ofthings, is how destructive and yeah,
it must be in such to beinvolved in that, whether you're a rescuer
or yeah, I'm stuck in it, that's quite a phenomenal thing to yeah,

(30:51):
be involved in. That's the pairof nature Yeah, it's just you
know, well we were quite luckyhere that we don't really um get too
many big magnitude earthquakes here in theUK. Be interesting to hear from our
listeners around the world if if they'vebeen involved with any earthquake rescues. But

(31:11):
there was a huge international response toit, which you know is not usually
the case, which is great,people from all around the world coming together
to help out the people with Turkeyand Syria. There was lots of different
types of search and rescue units thatwent over there, so you had dog
units, you had structural engineers,you had loads of different voluntary and rescue

(31:36):
organizations, which is I guess it'smost of the people that we've seen at
trade shows throughout the years. Yeah, definitely, Yeah, it's a yeah,
many many people with different countries wereinvolved in that one, from a
sort of urban search and rescue Iguess, and sort of UK Salm and
far services and volunteers from that sideof Yeah, a big let's just say

(32:00):
international risk of him. Yeah.Yeah, it must be really complicated with
the you know, dynamic situation onthe ground which you know, other more
tremors happening and buildings you know,further collapsing and where how do you get
kit into a place which has youknow, been completely devastated. It must

(32:21):
be a logistical nightmare. Yeah,I was going to say, from a
logistical side, Yeah, just gettingpeople over there, and not just kit.
It's obviously then entry into countries andwhat you're bringing in and all the
other usual customs type stuff you've gotto obviously go through and things like that.
So yeah, it probably takes quitea bit of planning and to do,

(32:43):
which I'm guessing you can't plan foran earthquake, so I guess you
just got a plan and train forgetting things over there when when something does
happen. But yeah, yeah,really great interoperability between the sort of you
know, civilian you know organizations,I guess the military organizations of getting stuff

(33:04):
in and out. I know therewas a lot of military aircraft involved in
moving kit and aid and supplies aroundthe country. And I suppose it's we're
lucky we've got some fairly big aircraftin the world to to sort of move
lots of equipment around. Yeah,and people and people, Yeah exactly,

(33:27):
Yeah, and people. So yeah, no, it's a huge huge response
there, and yeah, it's sadthat. I mean, hell of a
lot of people have you know,been victims of that earthquake. Quite scary
sort of numbers, you know,sort of fifty thousand plus deaths, which
is yeah, I think there's anotherone a few weeks lately. There's always

(33:49):
the after after shot and stuff.That's why you've got the rescuers there as
well. So it's yeah, yeah, definitely definitely unclear sort of deployment,
isn't it really in terms of you'vegot the situation that you go into and
then who is it going to change? What about the after shocks? How
you know, do I have tohow long do I deploy for? Because

(34:13):
I know, you know some ofthe teams that were out there, you
know they only deploy for you know, like defer deployments. You deploy for
a x amount of time and thenthen you swap over with another team or
come back home. So it mustbe a nightmare too organized with Yeah,
definitely very dynamic. Dynamic is theword word for that one. Um.

(34:38):
Yeah. So from the animals side, there was two dogs from Canine Northern
Ireland Search and Rescue Dogs Max andDelta were honored at Stormont over the Turkey,
Turkey Massion. So there's two nicelooking black labs. They were ye

(35:00):
helped to locate a woman after stilllive after eleven days under the rubble,
which is yeah, and another thingthat pretty amazing how how long people can
survive in and it's quite your sortof look at the buildings and stuff that's
been raised the ground almost and peoplewill still manage to survive after eleven days.
Obviously trapped in a a gap oran area they can sort of survive

(35:23):
him. But it's incredible. Yeah. Yeah, So these are two dogs
were awarded for their help finding thewoman alive in Turkey, so yeah,
well well done the dogs. Irishdogs as well. Yeah there's yeah,

(35:45):
very very proud handle as well withthe dogs. So yeah, good job
around. Nice one, all right, moving on to our next story UM
News article. We've got one inthe UK which was a search rescue team
which had a major exercise on inWheltshire and it turned into a bit of

(36:10):
a live rescue situation. Yeah.That was definitely one of those no death
moments exactly. So yeah, soit was a bike rider was involved in
an accident while the teams were onthis big major joint operation exercise, and

(36:31):
yeah, the bike rider had tobe shipped away in an air ambulance luckily
sort of had this accident in theright place at the right time, with
the right people around. Yes,certainly, I think that was on the
second day of that major search exercise. I can I can well appreciate how

(36:51):
much planning went into that two weekend. I think it's enough to do an
even exercise, let alone over sortof two days, with the amount of
resources they were required and needed fortheir their exercising scenarios they had going on.
But to yeah, you say,the right place, right time for
having people, kit equipment in theplace, and if nothing else, it

(37:14):
was also a good part of theexercise for training and having people doing what
they do. So yeah, yeah, a lot going on. Yeah,
I mean there's a lot of alot of teams there as well from my
understanding of um part of the exercise, so yeah, yeah, I think

(37:35):
it was. Yeah, teams andorganizations from sort of around the country came
down to we were showing in thesouth of England, which is yeah,
some distance for some some people tocome, some obviously nearer for others.
I think for the the rescue itwas obviously we which are searching rescue was
it summer and avon rescue as well. Yeah, there's some search and rescue,

(38:00):
cliff rescue and Hampshire, yeah Ibelieve, so yeah, yeah,
so yeah different places for people arecoming from, some some sort of nearer
borders than others. But yeah,there was a lot going on there and
has to have an air ambulance comein. Obviously you've got to think about
where it's going to land and howyou protect the landing zone and all those

(38:23):
kind of things, and how yougo to get the casualty too there and
how many people do you use onthe kasavac and because it was you know,
a woodland, so yeah, bitsof slopes and stuff. So yeah,
often do you swap over the peopletaking the casualty down and the care
and caring of the casualty and getgetting them to the safely in the air

(38:45):
ambulance. That's yeah, a lotgoing on after the second lay of all
nights and all day exercise. Soyeah, well done to again to all
involved on that one. Yeah,nice one. Okay, all right,
so we go to the needle inthe haystack. Yeah, this is a
bit something, a little bit ofdifferent spelling them. Yeah, it really

(39:06):
is this a bit mad, butit's I thought it would be good to
sort of discuss it because it wouldbe not something that search rescue people sort
of do, is look for somethingreally really tiny. It's normally a person
or a phone or you know,a vehicle. But but yeah, it's
definitely a thorough search, proper thoroughsearch. So we've got this, uh,

(39:30):
Western Australia tiny radioactive capsule was gonemissing from a mining company and obviously,
being radioactive, it needed to befound so it didn't go into the
wrong hands and a massive search wasunderway down under. Yeah, this is

(39:52):
a radioactive capsule which looks like itwas sort of a size of a tic
tac or something. It was notvery not very big at all. No
no containing season one three seven,which, um, yeah, it doesn't
sound very good. It's not soyou want to brush your teeth with is
it probably not going to get toomuch near either? Yeah. It was

(40:12):
eight million diameter so yeah wow yeahyeah six mil in eight sorry eight mil
long, six mil diameter so yeah, not very big, literally needing a
hastack job. Yeah, well luckilythey found it. The search area was
was actually huge. It was eighthundred and seventy miles one thousand, four

(40:37):
hundred kilometers across. That's very precise. That's a very precise thad link.
Yeah. I got to write thesefacts down because it's I was just sinking
eight hundred and seventy miles. Youknow, having a five k box,
five kilometer box would be would bebad enough for your search area, but

(40:58):
fourteen hundred kilometers you go and blimey, how do how do you find such
a small object? Yeah, soa bit of backstory. It was being
transported from one place to another andit, yeah, somehow fell off the
vehicle or dropped out some way alonga road. So obviously looking at some

(41:22):
of the pictures now, which isgreat for a podcast, but yeah,
I'm looking at a picture now ofa somebody walking up with probably probably something
like a gug account or some otherdevice for searching for radioactive material. So
they're at least got some kind ofequipment which should help them rather than using
their eyes, because you can imaginetrying to use your eyes to look for

(41:44):
effectively the same size as bits ofgrit and stones on the road, and
you've probably got no chance. Sothey're walking along a road which looks like
a yeah, a road a roadsearch with a fight emergency surface is behind
him. So that's something we've allbeen involved in. Um not maybe not

(42:05):
a fire engine behind you, butplease car on a road search or the
rolling roadblock blocks of it. Butthat rolling roadblock is yeah, because going
a long way, that's yeah,quite a quite a road search that one.
Oh yeah yeah yeah, Well Icould be wrong, but that length
is the same distance between lands Inand Durona Groats. To put it into

(42:28):
some context, which is, youknow, almost the whole length of the
British Isles, which is ridiculously long. Yeah, that is a yeah,
quite a long way from one ofthe UK to the other. That's some
yeah, to put into some context. I wonder how many people they are
changing over because obviously not going towalk walk with that. Maybe they're swapping

(42:49):
over the fire truck. Maybe oncethey've had enough they get out when the
stop and get it out and swapover and go for that. But again
the logistics of that in that weather, they think about that, the safety
and welfare and not just the fire. So this is who just like they're
doing doing the searching, but everyoneelse in the traffic hue and stuff.
It's um yeah, well you definitelyneed hosing down at the end of that,

(43:13):
wouldn't you Like it's hot at theheat and it would be ridiculous.
Well, I guess that's what thefireingnges. Maybe that's what the fire engine
is for there. It's just forsafety people down the stuff. Yeah,
that's because I guess we've all quitea few people have been in road searches
and things. But that's um yes, definitely a road search and a thorough

(43:35):
search. That's that's quite a lotsort of going on there for doing a
thorough search. I know. Iguess with equipment you can probably go a
little bit quicker because you're sort ofalmost detecting something in the road. Yeah.
Again, again they're only walking againstthe crash barrier, so I guess.
And then must tickets in the sideside of the road rather than the

(43:57):
middle. There's so many questions onthis one. I'm intrigued. So if
any listeners were involved in looking fora piece sized device of radioactivity, um
yeah, let us know, jumpon discord and yeah, let us know.
Yeah, we'd be great to hearhow you planned for that crazy search.

(44:21):
Yeah, awesome, is that ifa news in I think so,
yeah, we all news out.We're all newsed out, which is well
great, We've got some more stuffto think about for the next time.
Yeah, and if any listeners havegot any news stories, they can give

(44:42):
us a shout on the discords onthe discord yeah magic, all right,
Moving on to the gear section then, So I hear you've been spending again,

(45:04):
mister ben. I have been spendingagain, but to be fair,
it has spread over a few months. I haven't been on here for a
while, so I have been doingspins. It's not locked I can't say
it's lockdown spends anymore because we're outof lockdown. But I'm still paying for
Lockdown. I'm still paying for lockdownspends. But yes, I have been
buying stuff to wear this time,not torches. I don't think I've bought

(45:28):
any any more torches. Oh that'sthat's a pretty good going for you,
I think. Yeah. I thinkit's just been been clothing. So did
you want me to go through someof my clothing buys? Oh? Yeah,
what have you bought? I wantto know what you're bought now I
can talk about there's not any impropriate. We're not talking budget smugglers, are
We know that brambles and the hollycatch catches you on those ones. Not

(45:57):
good for anyone, not even inlooking for in the hot weather, looking
for a radioactive caps um. Yes, so what if I bought a mixture
of items, some I use forsearch and rescue purposes, some of I
just have bought because I could andI needed I did I need them?

(46:17):
Yes, ideas, yes I did. UM bought some Burghouse gear, a
hard shell pack like jacket which isorange, nice nice gortex, about three
hundred and sixty five grams, sothat goes into kick quite well. I

(46:39):
bought that because I wanted something lightthat I could pack away that I didn't
have to um necessarily the days.I don't want to use the munroe or
a heavier jacket to that kind ofthing. So I bought that and I
actually managed to use it in angeryesterday and it seemed seemed to do the

(47:00):
trick. Okay, obviously kept thewater off quite well even with the high
vis over it. Um. No, I didn't get too hot. I
did lay it down underneath I wasn'twearing as much. So it's that kind
of thing of I just need tothink about the layering up of it and
stuff. But it packs in thebag quite well, so yeah, it's

(47:21):
and it's a nice, nice orange. I don't often buy orange coats,
use its black black or gray.Black or gray. I don't go safe
when I'm out on about lost onthe mount, and I won't be wearing
anything orange would be dark. Yeah, So so I bought one of those,

(47:42):
which goes to my kit quite welland packs down. So that's that's
a handy thing, could be handything for the summer in the showers and
stuff. Um. I also boughtanother Burghouse item, which is an insulated
hooded jacket. Okay, it's aone hundred percent recycled high drew loft which
is a synthetic insulation. So Idon't know whether that counts as a second

(48:05):
hand one as it's been under presentrecycled by stuff, probably from other jackets.
But of course that's all very goodfor environmentally friendly stuff, good good
effort, but that's not why Ibrought it. Um, Yeah, it's
really good. I'm quite pleased ofit. It's it's done me well over
the times with that she had sortof minus six here I know some of

(48:29):
our listeners are now laughing that isalmost tropical to them. Um, back
to our Snowwegians, they're probably shortsand T shirt and that kind of temperature.
But yeah, I haven't worn it. It's as it's synthetic and it's
it's a water repellent type filling.Yeah, I haven't yet worn it out

(48:52):
in the rain. I don't know. It's my brain thinking that kind of
thing. I always think, ifif I can plan it, I won't
go out wearing a like down jacketeven because I think it's just gonna get
wet and soggy as well. Maybeit's just my brain, but I would
rather go out and something that lookswaterproof because it probably is. But I
maybe I've been doing a disservice tothe hydra loft material and that's inside it.

(49:14):
But so this is it a pulloverjumper or is it noticed? The
zips jacket jack shooded jacket nice,Yeah, a few pockets and stuff.
It looks quite smart. It's um, it's kept me nice and warm throughout
the the cold periods. So I'vealso bought some burghouse. You can see

(49:37):
where I'm going out. Did yougo to Burghouse store by No, I
didn't because I don't go in shops. I'd buy online because I don't like
going in shops because of people.So I bought some g Tis Gators because
I wore out my Mountain Gee Gators, which I've had since I qualified.

(50:00):
So they were probably a good fiveor more years. That's pretty good going
actually, so yeah, I wasquite impressed with those. I didn't buy
another pair, but but they did. They did me very well. Um
yeah, they just got a bitof wholly ripped and stuff. So it
was about time I bought another pair. So I got some get skaters from

(50:21):
Burghouse Nice. I have then alsobought some helly handsome gear splashing splashing the
big money. Are we slashing thebig moneys? Yeah, I bought a
Marino lightweight pants. Now they're they'remore like leggings and long jobs rather than
pants, so maybe it's yeah forAmerican listeners, pants are probably could be

(50:45):
like trousers. Yeah, uk onesday, I'm not wooly underpants. They
are. They are leggings type thingsmade out a Marino. Well, so
they're they're nice. Nice they togo under trousers or yes, baits layer
for my legs, your legs,yes, so I use those for search

(51:07):
and rescue purposes and also in generalfor giving me warm nice um. And
I've bought some hairy hands and shoesand boots. Shoes and boots not doubling
up doubling up on the shoes.So I bought some hiking shoes, um,
which I'm quite impressed with. Actually, I needed new pair of trainers,

(51:30):
but fine trainers don't have any decentgrip on them. Um. And
I sort of lot to go fora walk at lunch times and stuff and
generally walk about that slipping about.Yeah, so I thought i'd go for
something hi, yeah, hikey trailingtraining type. So I'll wait for those.
Quite happy with those. And Ialso bought some a pair of new

(51:53):
buck leather casual boots which are reallylight, yeah, really like it's like
wearing air on your well. Theyhigh tops, low tops, medium tops,
um, sort of medium tops aresort of a low angle type of
boot, not quite so high up. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm trying

(52:15):
to keep them for not best asyou but you know, for wearing them
when it's it's dry and stuff.I'm gonna try and keep those looking smarts
and stuff. Did. Are theyin a normal color or have you gone
wacky helly hands and bright yellow ororange? No, I've because I don't
really go whacky colors and bright colorsif I have to, unless I'm go

(52:36):
out on searching stuff. The Hikeyshoes are like gray, of course,
but the new buck leather is likea brown. I think it's honey wheat
color. I think I taste somethinglike that. I'll never haven't licked them
yet, but sorry, honey honeywheat, like the stuff you get in
subways or something honey bread. Yes. And my last purchase was a through

(53:06):
dark basse layer, oh h madefrom polar Tech power grid fabrick, which
is a a It's not a throughdark thing. Polotech is its own brand,
but that I'm really pleased with that. Actually that out of all the
stuff that's that's a Politic power gridtamp brick. I'm really pressed that kind

(53:27):
of stuff. I don't know thatyou've come across m Polotech material. That's
h no. But what what Iknow one of our from the shop side
that one of our suppliers is nowum produces and has in stock Polartech.
It's quite new to them. Butyeah, it's it is intriguing, it
looks it looks fascinating to work with. But yeah, no I haven't.

(53:52):
I don't have anything of it andI've not worked with it, but it's
definitely on my radar to have alook at at some point. It's um,
it does look a bit different becauseit's like in squares. Yeah,
it's like a mesh fab brick withsort of high loft voids. So I
guess the traps the air and let'sthe air goes through and stuff which is
on the inside of the fabbric.It's um. Yeah, it's kept me

(54:15):
nice and warm in our cold timesof minus two. Yeah, so much
so. I was wearing indoors withmy helly hands and pants and trousers.
Of course, I was almost goingto buy everyone in the household some polar
tech gear and then turn the heatingoff. That sounds that sounds like a

(54:36):
plan, mate, That's a that'sa good plan. Yeah, but I
didn't get away with that. Butyeah, that's so. Is it a
long sleevetop? I presume it isa long sleeve toop. Yes, yeah,
they do a hooded version of itas well, But I just went
for this sort of. Ye,it's a high neck one as well,
so it's quite a good quick keepsyour neck warm and you can zip it
and nice. So yeah, I'mit's got the fum grips, some thumb

(54:59):
holes so you can put it throughas a baselin. You put his thumbs
through the sleeve and stuff. Well, I think more more stuff should have
those holes for your thumbs, likeliterally everything like the hoodies, the long
sleeve tops, they should all havethose thumb holes. They should do because
yeah, when when you put thingsand it rolls up inside your sleeves and

(55:20):
then pull down and it does alsokeep bits of your hands warms the world,
depending how long you go for thesleeves. It another way of keeping
parts of your hands or wrists warm. Um. Yeah, so that could
have been hundreds and millions of pounds, but I don't like paying full price

(55:42):
for anything, so I didn't,so some of it was in sales.
That's good. I'm glad you're clarifyingbecause I thought you did a smash of
grab or something. Don't you likethat? No, to do a smashing
grab of all that, that's that'sthat's a lot. You have to think
about which warehouses are in and throughdark stuff. You probably don't want to
go with nicking that stuff. SoI think they've got stuff in um a

(56:07):
high street store now in London saysitself, which is, oh yeah,
I've got it out in that anyway, digress. But yes I didn't.
I didn't pay for price for anyof it. Some of it was through
their general sales and some of itwas through blue Light Card discounts. Yeah,
what what's that? That's a discountcard where for blue Light services including

(56:30):
searching rescues, and you get discountson all sorts of things that brands and
suppliers and companies sign up to.And you can get discounts of varying degrees
and codes for online because again Idon't like shopping in person. You can
get shop discounts as well, that'snot all online. So yeah, that's

(56:53):
that's worth worth looking at for anyonewho's in search and rescue if you haven't
already done it. You get discountson meals, Halfords and just generally other
other shops and stuff. So yeah, and also some brands, if you
look around, they do do somequite good discounts as well for for search

(57:15):
and rescue people, which is wasworth looking around some of the big big
brands, Um do you quite gooddiscounts, So it's always worth looking at
if you've got a favorite brand,or you haven't but you now have because
of the discount, it's worth Yeah, it's worth looking around to seeing what

(57:35):
you can get as a sad discount. Yeah yeah, yeah, Well we'll
put some of them on the discordserver so that people can have a look.
And um, well I'm not tellingme, I'm not I want to
see the thumb holes in terms oflike just my FuMB holes, my thumb
holes, my pants. Oh that'sa picture and that that's X rated.

(58:01):
Now yeah, that's a different,different day. So was that everything you
bought it was a bit of ahole? That it was a bit of
a hole, Yes, but there'sbeen spread out over over over time probably
since yeah, yeah at least January. Maybe nice wasn't just last week.

(58:24):
The other bit of gear I didbuy, was it Orange rucksack off of
you? It was? Yeah,how's that? How's that for you?
Oh it's it's okay, it's allright. Actually, yeah, after you've
done a bit of customization to it, which we you do, don't you
you can do. We do ifwe if you ask very nicely, we'll

(58:44):
almost do anything, almost dark pictures. I'm never going to live that down.
Every every every order, almost todraw a duck picture. Yeah.
So anyone buying from Star Store,keep asking for dark just please please,
I'll do anything anything for a sale. Luke will draw you anything. Um.

(59:09):
Yeah, that the rucksacks are right. Actually it's very orange. Yeah,
it's got a nice bit of customizationfor my team on it, which
you've um heat heat pressed it heatpressed, that's the word. Yeah.
Yeah, have some reflective texts anda logo which is always interesting today.

(59:30):
But it was I could tell youwhat it was very tricky. It was
very very tricky to pull that off. Yeah, I'd like to give you
a challenge and then and what doyou do after you pains? Likely did
mine? Oh and I brought theright tool to do the job. So
I did a really good job withit. Was almost like using what's the

(59:52):
best way to describe it, adigger to do a trout job. Literally,
it was ridiculous. Yeah, youdid show me some pictures of it
and we got there in the end. You did you know, you did
a good job on that yeah,as a yes, a rucksack. It's

(01:00:13):
all right. It's very orange,and it's obviously based on the rail network
UM rucksacks, which in their ownright are very orange and reflective. So
yeah, it's it's it's it's okay. It's not my perfect ruck sacks.
I'm not sure anyone actually makes it, whether it's because whether it's because it's
me, or people don't actually makea orange based reflective UM sar. I

(01:00:40):
think that's why loads of people,you know, they love the mountain rust
you know, the mountain ruck sacksthat you get, you know, the
heavy duty versions. But they're justmassive, aren't they. You just you
just can't get the right size orthe right color. So so I think
this is as a forty two latercapacity this one, Yeah, yeah,

(01:01:00):
forty two liters. It's got umsome compartments just to help out, but
it's not too crazy. So it'sit's it's got space for you to you
know, put pack in sacks andpouches and all sorts of stuff in it
as well. Yeah, I haven'tchecked the inside probably, I've sort of
dried the outside off of I didn'tget a chance to see how wet it

(01:01:22):
is inside. I might do thisafter recording actually and then feedback how waterproof
it was on its own. Buteverything is in dry bags inside, and
yeah, different different colors and stuff. So yeah, that's that's how I
keep my kit nice. Yeah,so that is my gear stuff. Whenever
I'm on next, I have anotherlist of stuff I have bought or still

(01:01:44):
painful. Yeah, we're going togo for your wish list at some point
of what signed your wish list tobuy or what could be ours? Then
more coats, more torches, morecoats and torches, brilliant stuff anymore from
you, sir, Not gear wise, No, I think that's meal,

(01:02:07):
meal geared out for what I've purchasedrecently. Nice, all right, perfect,
Well, thank you mister Ben.That's all right. It was nice
to nice to come along. Yeah, we'll catch you on the next one.
Cool, see you then bye bye, bye bye

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SARCast S3 Ep1 - Tactical Tim, earthquakes and Ben spends!

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