The heart and soul of a specialty rescue team is the people who are involved in it. Long term commitment on top of all firefighting duties is essential.

No tools or technology can substitute for lack of training and experience. Proper training is necessary for any rescue team to safely and effectively conduct rescue operations. Other than the financial aspect of this project, training will be the second biggest investment necessary for this project. It is important to state early in this section that although there is some very specialized training that will be required specifically for the actual Team members, the majority of the training necessary for this project is also necessary for Toronto Fire Services Operations Division.

The training required for this project will be substantial. Toronto Fire Services is up to the challenges in these areas and Toronto HUSAR will be a success because of the leadership and determination that is shared by the new organization.

It is the intention of this project to ensure that each Team member has been trained to a level slightly higher than is expected. The training for each member will vary depending on his or her position and areas of responsibility.

As with many existing training programs the training for this project will follow a four level model. Awareness Level (I), Operations Level (II), Technician Level (III), and Specialist.

The four levels for our purposes are defined as:

• Awareness: denotes the ability to recognize a problem and identify the appropriate assistance,

• Operations: denotes an ability to work in a defensive situation, generally inside the perimeter of a disaster area but outside the collapsed structure,

• Technician: denotes an ability to work in an offensive situation, inside the collapsed structure,

• Specialist: denotes a level of knowledge, more advanced than the technician level.

Team member training includes in part, the following:

• Technical search operations
• Structural Collapse
• Emergency building shoring
• Confined space
• Trench rescue
• Emergency First responder
• Crush injury awareness and treatment
• Logistics functions and operations
• Technical information procedures
• Advanced canine handling
• Basic canine first aid
• Incident Command systems

These courses are in addition to the experience and requisite knowledge team members must have to perform in their regular day to day jobs.

All training programs will be in compliance with all of the applicable standards both for safety and for the consistency and thoroughness of the training. All training will be competency based and will require evaluation. Training currency will be maintained according to the national standards, which are being developed, and any industry applicable standards.

More training and education information and Standard Operating Guidelines will be developed as necessary and will be implemented as the Team develops.