Vernon Search And Rescue Group Society

08/23/2026

08/17/2026

💧 BIG SHOUTOUT TO REAL CANADIAN WHOLESALE CLUB & LOBLAWS! 💧
Vernon Search and Rescue would like to thank the team at Real Canadian Wholesale Club & Loblaws for their generous donation of a full pallet of water! 🙌
This donation will help support our search and rescue operations, providing water for our team, subjects, and mutual-aid partners during responses, training, and operational activities.
We truly appreciate your support and generosity. It helps keep our team prepared and ready to respond when needed.
Thank you, Real Canadian Wholesale Club & Loblaws! 💧🚑⛰️

08/06/2026

This sure felt like deja vu from a few years ago!

It was a busy weekend for Vernon SAR working alongside the many emergency services responding to the Bradley Creek Wildfire.

Saturday saw our boat crews on Okanagan Lake, working to usher boating looky-loos out of the way of the water bombers and helicopters that were actioning the fire.

Then as the wind progressively worsened and drove other boats off to shelter, our boats switched to battling the increasingly angry seas to extricate people by water.

At the same time, we had ground crews assembled for delivery of evacuation notices.

After the high winds, Sunday saw us delivering evacuation notices to a much-expanded area, for which we welcomed extra manpower brought to bear by our neighboring friends from Central Okanagan SAR (Kelowna), Shuswap SAR (Salmon Arm), and Kamloops SAR. It is absolutely critical to be efficient, but thorough, with evacuation notices, and each of these interior teams have developed these skills first-hand through eerily similar wildfire events in everyone's backyards over the past few years.

Finally, Monday was a bit of a reprieve to restock supplies, before we were called back to it Tuesday for some more door-to-door notice deliveries.

We truly wish all the best to those that have been affected by these wildfires. And we wish to say a deep-hearted THANK YOU to all of those that are busy bringing some semblance of normalcy back to this not-normal situation.

07/15/2026

Ever wonder how much time and effort is donated by SAR volunteers towards developing and maintaining skills necessary to respond to whatever might face us?

As an illustration, Rope Rescue is just one of the many disciplines that SAR volunteers might choose to learn, and we recently had a few members attend a weekend course on their way to their Tech 2 certification.

For those unaware, Rope Rescue is broken down into 3 stages of skill progression, as follows:

Tech 1 - is all the skills up until the edge and essentially involves rigging a Dual Capability Two Tension Rope System. Tech 1s can be stretcher attendants on slope rescue up to 70 degrees.

Tech 2 - is everything over the edge and requires the skill for high angle slope (70-90 degrees) as a single stretcher attendant, stretcher wrangling (changing your position relevant to the stretcher, and moving the stretcher from horizontal to vertical in a vertical environment), rappelling and ascending a line, and subject pick offs (no stretcher). As well as knot passes and acting as ‘control’ on a scene.

Team Leader - is the ultimate overseer of everything that happens during a rope call, and is ultimately responsible for making the key decisions that Tech 1 and Tech 2 then execute.

To become qualified at each stage of skill progression, volunteers must attend a full "teaching" weekend, followed by at least 20 hours of practice with their home team, finally culminating in a full "evaluation" weekend to prove they know their stuff.

Rope rescue is highly technical and requires a great deal of regular practice to keep skills sharp and be an effective member of the team. And VSAR maintains a full rope capability, with a full compliment of members at or working through each stage of skill progression.

07/11/2026

A first glimpse...our New Command Truck is taking shape at Intercontinental Truck Body in Surrey!

Back in 2019, as part of our ever ongoing capital management planning, we began investigating options for renewing the first vehicle in our fleet. And after careful evaluating, planning, designing, and fundraising, this dream is now turning into reality.

The truck we are replacing began life 26 years ago, when we first tapped International Truck Body to build our first custom SAR specific vehicle, being a dual-use Command & Gear Transport Truck. This original unit served us exceptionally well over the years, and for all but the last few years was the only vehicle in our fleet. But as time has marched on, our task volume has changed, the focus of calls we respond to has changed, the amount of gear and how we transport it has changed, and how we command an operation has changed...all leading to the inevitable conclusion that it was also time to make a change in our Command Truck to match our new reality.

This new truck will be Command specific, as our vehicle fleet has expanded over the years to include an Initial Response Truck specific for transportation of gear and a Transport Truck for towing any of our trailers. And this new truck is being purpose built to integrate the network and mapping technology, digital and satellite communication tools, and multi-person command tea,m approach that we now regularly utilize when responding to a call for help.

As one might imagine, the price of such a custom built vehicle has increased more than a just wee bit since our first built 26 years ago! But with a number of years of fundraising and grant applications, our community has come together to make this purchase a reality. Of particular note with this piece, we really do need to thank the Lambert family "SOS for VSAR Golf Fundraiser" and Quickturn Production Machining for the repeating donation dollars over multiple years, Watkin Motors for the great pricing when securing this Ford 450 platform to work up from, and the BC Government for their Capital Project Grant program.

We can't wait to take delivery later this year!

07/09/2026

And now - for the rest of the story.

Last night, just before 7:00 p.m., Vernon SAR was requested by BCEHS to assist with an injured patient in the steep terrain surrounding Fintry Falls. Twenty VSAR members responded. North Westside Fire also responded and made quick access to the patient and provided the initial assessment.

It was quickly determined the patient's injuries, combined with the terrain, meant we needed to try for the big guns. A request went out to the Penticton SAR Class D Helicopter Longline Team. Our timeline was tight and daylight was ticking.

Plan B was to perform a rope rescue from above the patient, and the team was busy setting up.

The helicopter came....and so did the wind. Strong evening winds swirling through the canyon made helicopter operations unsafe. As much as everyone wanted Plan A to work, Mother Nature made the decision for us.

So... back to the backup plan.

Ohhh....and did I mention the smoke? Because apparently the wind and terrain weren't enough of a challenge. The wildfire smoke from the Boston Bar fire decided to join the party too.

On with the rescue.

Our patient was packaged for transport and secured into the basket. With assistance from our friends at North Westside Fire, the patient was raised approximately 65 metres to the top of the canyon wall, where they were transferred into the care of the waiting BCEHS crew.

Back to our SAR Hall we went. Gear sorted, ropes checked, packs stocked, trucks arranged and a quick debrief. All ready for the next time our Bat Phone goes off. Finally—dirty, tired, but still cheerful—they headed home to acquaint themselves with their pillows.

Task complete 2:00 am

A sincere thank you to North Westside Fire Rescue, BCEHS, and Penticton & District Search & Rescue. Although the helicopter couldn't complete the rescue, having that resource available meant every option was explored.

*Every rescue has a lesson. What was yours from this one?

07/08/2026

Vernon SAR is on task in the Fintry area. Update to follow.

06/30/2026

When repair is required for vehicles that are critical in the success of search and rescue operations, the need for those repairs is immediate. Recently, the need for repair became apparent for one of our boats, Safe Landing.

Safe Landing began it’s life in 1994 with the OK Landing Volunteer Fire Department as a fire rescue boat, complete with integrated water pump and monitor (aka water canon). In 2012 OKLVFD donated the boat to VSAR in order to keep our needed presence on Okanagan Lake. Once the fire fighting components were removed, the boat became an integral part of our vehicle fleet. This boat has a deep hull that allows us to stay stable during poor weather conditions. It is small enough to be trailered to the many the lakes in the region. This boat has proven itself time and time again, but with the years of use and the many trailer trips, Safe Landing began to show it’s age with leaks.

Being Summer, this boat is needed at a moment’s notice. We needed repairs stat, and Kingfisher stepped up to the plate. At no cost to Vernon Search and Rescue, Kingfisher repaired the boat and made it fully operational once again. It must be mentioned that Safe Landing is not even a Kingfisher boat!

The public depends on Vernon Search and Rescue for our immediate action in emergency situations, but without the donated time and energy from skilled companies such as Kingfisher, we would be stuck!

Their generosity keeps us afloat—literally—and we’re so thankful for their dedication to our community. Thank you, Kingfisher!

06/26/2026

This week, at our VSAR family day event we got to congratulate 7 of our MITs (members in training) on their completion of their training program and their promotion to full GSAR (ground search and rescue) members!

Over the past year these members have completed 100 hours of in-class training, a cold survival night in the elements, and 100 hours of hands-on training and task hours. No easy feat when juggling careers, family and a personal life!

All our members, new and long-standing, are full volunteers that choose to step up when those calls come in or training is needed.

We would like to thank these new members for their time and commitment!

Also thank you to Red Swan Pizza for your donation of the delicious pizza and salads for this event!