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SAR TEAM PROFILE

Lakehead Search & Rescue Unit:
40 Years of Service and Change

Pat Skula, EMCA, SAR 1

1962 - A four-year old boy went missing in Kakabeka Falls Park and night was coming on. A call for help went out. My husband and I had a German Shepherd and, in our naivety, we volunteered "his nose" to assist in the search. What we didn't anticipate was the amount of work and training that went into handling a tracking dog. Learning to read your dog and trusting him to lead, as well dealing with the implications and emotional impact of watching him stand, belly deep in fast-flowing water, staring toward the top of the falls.

In the Fall of 1962 a group of hunters and fishermen in the Thunder Bay area responded to a call for a lost hunter. The chaos, confusion and sometimes, dangerous practices that followed, such as taking along a rifle and antifreeze, made it clear that training and organization were needed, not only to find a lost person, but to keep the searchers themselves in one piece.

The hunter was never found, but the experience led to the formation of the "Thunder Bay Bush Search and Research Squad," which evolved into the Lakehead Search and Rescue Unit (LSRU). We knew we had a lot to learn. How do you conduct a thorough search? How do you know what we are seeing and what it means? Finally, how do you ensure that the searchers don't become a second casualty? Then came the Kakabeka missing child search and stark reality hit when the youngster was found drowned in a sinkhole above the falls.

Depth and diversity

When the LSRU's training classes began, we found an amazing depth and diversity of expertise among the members. There were greenhorns like me and my husband, together with expert hunters, fishermen and trappers, as well as a veteran of the Finnish Army Ghost Troop. When a guest speaker inquired as to the educational level he would be addressing he was told, "from the functionally illiterate in English to a PhD."

As the lone female member of the group in its early days I had some unique experiences. When the LSRU volunteer doctor gave a crash course in first aid, he was half way through his lesson before he noticed that one of the bushmen in his audience wasn't! He said later that upon this discovery he spent a horrified few minutes trying to remember how rough his language had been. The LSRU was an equal opportunity organization. In fact, the unit's first callout coordinator was wheelchair bound.

As we acquired search and rescue skills and the confidence of authorities, we found ourselves being called for as many as three searches in one weekend. If we were going to enjoy our weekends we needed to take preventative action. We opened our training school to the public, published our first instruction manual, and waited to see if there would be any interest. Thirty-five years later, we have to limit our annual enrolment to 100 individuals and the number of searches has dropped to around a half a dozen a year.

Passage and progress

Lakehead SAR team's equipment trailer, Big Red

The LSRU has gone from pencil, exercise book and a compass on the hood of a truck, to the tent that collapsed in a rainstorm, to a unit-designed collapsible trailer and to Big Red, our command centre van, which served us for twenty-five years. At our 40th anniversary dinner this year, we showcased our new fleet. We now have a stretcher-equipped Suburban, an equipment trailer, which also serves as a secondary operations base, and a new Big Red equipped with computers and Global Positioning System linkups, radio and cell phone connections. We can now pull in a search area and print out the appropriate map segment for each team leader.

Of the original group, there are perhaps a dozen still working with the unit. They are valuable resources that teach, advise and mentor. Some remain active searchers, working alongside the newer members, and the up and coming computer generation. It is through this spirit of mentoring, teamwork, and dedicated volunteerism that the LSRU looks forward to the next 40 years of service.

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