Search-and-rescue volunteers from across Eastern Ontario spent Saturday doing training exercises at Larose Forest near Limoges.
The volunteers were faced with scenarios they might have to deal with in the case of an actual emergency.
“Police agencies throughout the province are stretched pretty thin, so a lot of them will call on the volunteers, but the volunteers have to prove they are trained to a specific standard,” Sandy Guse, director of the Ontario Search & Rescue Volunteer Association, explained.
About 40 volunteers were split into groups to undergo different training exercises.
In one case, a group of five ground patrol volunteers were sent out to find victims of a single engine plane crash.
“No one wants to get that call that their friend of family isn’t coming home… to be able to assist in preventing that, means all the world,” said James Clapp, a team lead for one of the exercises.
Members from Ontario Provincial Police were on site to make sure the volunteers were completing the exercise to proper standard.
OPP and Ottawa Police can call of these volunteers in case of emergency.
There are more than 1000 search & rescue volunteers across Ontario.
