On Saturday September 13th, the Sadsburyville Fire Company was invited to participate in a training exercise with our mutual aid companies here in Western Chester County. We teamed up with the Wagontown Fire Company, Honey Brook Fire Company, Washington Hose Company Ambulance 41-2, Chester County Park Rangers, and Mike Borello with Heros Next Door who is doing a new video featuring the "SHERP".

The SHERP is a UTV that can be used in the emergency services in multiple capacities while being able to navigate just about any terrain including water; yes, that's right it can float! During today's training exercise, members of the companies were advised of a lost person in a state park and were dispatched to a staging area for assignments. Chief 33 (Ream) was advised to stage at Chambers Lake and would have the water operation command with crews on Boat 33 and Boat 35. Chief 31 (McCarthy) would have land search command with multiple members of each company, Park Rangers and the SHERP. Deputy Chief 35 (Ziegler) was assigned the CP (Command Post).

A description of a lost subject was given to authorities for the search with a "last seen" location given. Units practiced with search patterns, utilizing grids and map reading with directional coordinates and proper radio communications while on a search detail working with a unified command structure. Many clues were left throughout the search for crews to find, with the hope of leading the crews to the subject lost. The land search detail was able to find a shoe and a backpack during the search which led them to the lake where a Drone had captured a subject in the water at Chambers Lake. All crews converged at the lake and a plan for a water rescue went into effect, calling on the SHERP to respond.

Boats were placed in the water with crews aboard and the SHERP was dispatched into the lake for rescue of the subject. The subject was rescued and transported back to land and to a waiting Ambulance for transport to the nearest Hospital. Mike Borello from Heros Next Door was filming this entire scenario for an upcoming new training video that he will put out later this month which will highlight search and rescue and feature the SHERP! Please stay tuned for the video when it comes available.