B.D.F. coordinates new search & rescue policy
Since Monday representatives from the Belize Defence Force, Police Department, NEMO, Coast Guard and a host of other organisations have been huddled in a room at Price Barracks in Ladyville. Their mission? To come up with a national search and rescue policy. According to B.D.F. Chief of Staff, Lt. Col. Reuel Black, in the last ten months there have been thirteen marine and three air search and rescue efforts. With so many lives on the line, it’s hoped that a new coordinated policy will make responses faster and more successful.
Lt. Col. Reuel Black, Chief of Staff, B.D.F.
?About two weeks ago the National Security Council designated the Belize Defence Force as the coordinating agency for search and rescue throughout the whole country. And what the general has tasked myself as the chief of staff is to come up with a plan how we will coordinate all these agencies and what we will do from the time we receive a call to the time the search and rescue is completed, suspended or is actually terminated. And we have brought in all the agencies that deal with search and rescue, particularly not those that support search and rescue, only those that support search and rescue, so that we can have their input in the plan. We had a situation where some expeditioners doing caving got trapped in a cave because of flooding, flooded water and we were called to go and assist and we do not have the caving expertise in the B.D.F. to go and do any cave rescue. It was then that we found out that the Caves Branch have a rescue team and that?s how we coordinate, but it took a little while before we can find that out. What we are doing now is to have a list of everybody who deals with search and rescue. The way it was done before is that either ourselves were called or the port authority or the coast guard were called individually and then everybody goes and do their own thing. And if you notice, the success that we had, we actually did very well like that, so we expect to do better if we are coordinated.?
The three-day session ends on Wednesday.
