Urban search and rescue

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Urban search and rescue (abbreviated as USAR^[1] or US&R^[2]) is a type of technical rescue operation that involves the location, extrication, and initial medical stabilization of victims trapped in an urban area, namely structural collapse due to natural disasters, war, terrorism or accidents, mines and collapsed trenches.

The causes of USAR incidents can be categorised as accidental and deliberate.

Structural collapse incidents can comprise unstable or collapsed structures in an unsafe position. Usually collapse incidents leave voids inside the debris that can result in numerous casualties trapped under large amounts of very heavy and often unstable debris.

USAR services can be faced with complex rescue operations within hazardous environments. Incidents experience shows that people are often found alive many hours and days after rescue operations commence, and the corresponding services should be planned accordingly.

USAR teams in different countries may be organised in a variety of ways, but they are often associated with firefighting services.^[3]

The increasingly complex methods and procedures, and the modern ability to bring in teams from far afield has brought a very strong drive for standardization within nations and internationally, most obvious in the role of the United Nations' International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) in large natural disasters.^[4]

Urban search-and-rescue is considered a multi-hazard discipline, as it may be needed for a variety of hazards including earthquakes, cyclones, storms and tornadoes, floods, dam failures, technological accidents, terrorist activities, and hazardous materials releases.