Disaster response program expands as volunteers prepare for 2024 wildfire response [Video]

Search and rescue volunteers never know what they’ll be called for next: a missing person, a search for a murder weapon or a man injured by a grizzly bear.

Kevin Atherton with Elkford Search and Rescue was the search manager on a call in May that required airlifting a mauling victim out of the backcountry near the Alberta-BC border

“It was rugged terrain. It was heavily overgrown with some fairly steep sections,” recalled Atherton about the mission.

Now search and rescue teams are being prepared to respond to more requests in light of increasing frequency and severity of disasters.

May of 2023 marked the first time volunteers from Calgary Search and Rescue Association were sent as far north as Grand Prairie to help support the wildfire fight.

The federal government is now expanding its existing Humanitarian Workforce (HWF) program which helps non-governmental organizations like the Canadian Red Cross, St. John Ambulance, The Salvation Army, and the Search and Rescue Volunteer Association of Canada (SARVAC).

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