Bowling Green-Warren County Rescue and Emergency Squad

The search & Rescue division specializes in locating missing or overdue persons in wilderness and urban environments. Whether it is a child lost in the woods or a person who failed to return home from a hunting trip, search & Rescue is there to locate these people and bring them to safety. To accomplish these missions the search & Rescue division has a mobile command post that can be set up on scene and is where all of the coordination and strategizing takes place. Inside the command post crew members are able to print multiple missing person fliers, which include a picture of the person missing and information about them. Crew members are also able to print off aerial photographs of the area in which teams will be operating. Search & Rescue has many resources and technology available to assist with these missions. Personnel are trained in basic search & Rescue, which includes survival training, lost person behavior training, and other important skills. Some members have received special mantracking training, which allows them to follow a missing person by tracking their footprints or looking at the signs of their passage. Crew members also have global positioning satellites and night vision equipment available, which means they can search day or night.

The water Rescue division specializes in retrieving persons in distress that are in or on the water. This may be a person drowning or a person in a disabled water craft. The water Rescue division has four Rescue boats and two canoes. Two of the four boats have special sonar equipment installed so that boat operators can scan the bottom of the river or lake and finddrowning victims. The boats are also equipped with global positioning satellite units.

The dive Rescue & recovery team performs the same mission task as water Rescue, however divers are utilized to accomplish the mission. Divers earn their open water certifications through well known organizations, such as idea and padi. Divers also earn their public safety diver certifications.