Swift Water Incident Management (SWIM)

Swift Water Incident Management (SWIM) Class - 8 hours

This class is designed to meet the Search Management requirements of the Pennsylvania Swift Water VRSR program. It will introduce swift water rescue team members to search management techniques for water-based searches/recovery incidents. It is a mix of lecture, group planning activities, and tabletop exercises. Subject’s covered include:

• Characteristics of effective search management in water rescue/recovery incidents, which result in better and faster outcomes, safer operations, and less confusion during incidents.
• Use of ICS in water searches, effective briefings and communication, appropriate use of available resources, and incident documentation.
• The resources available (swift water teams, sonar, drones, search management teams, boat-certified human remains detection dogs, etc), their appropriate use, and the assets available in Western Pennsylvania. 
• Developing swift water incident preplans
• Developing an effective search strategy and writing an incident action plan (IAP). 
• Working in groups, students will develop scenarios and write an IAP. 
• Effectively use modern mapping technology, including SARTopo, to plan searches and track areas searched.
• Tabletop activities planning searches in a lake, a creek, and a mass flooding scenario.

Prerequisites: Students must have successfully completed Water Rescue and Emergency Response (WRER)

This class is eligible for 8 hours - Other of PA Con-ed (Course #1000056671)

This class is only taught by request of water rescue teams or deparments. We will teach it at your station and can be taught in one day or in two evenings. This class is taught by AMRG's search managers, who have decades of experience managing water searches and large scale incidents. AMRG is a VRSR 4a water rescue team and offer specialized resource, such as search dogs certified to operate on boats. Contact us to schedule a class for your deparment.