An EU modules field exercise in Montana, Bulgaria from 02-06 October 2023 tested international urban search and rescue teams in an earthquake scenario that simulated damaged buildings and missing victims in an environment of destroyed structures.
It was the third exercise that took place on the training ground of the local civil protection units in Montana within the framework of an international civil protection exercise. Over four days the participating teams were given the focuses on effective disaster response strategies, from search and rescue operations to providing essential resources in the aftermath of a seismic event.
All responding capacities teamed up to a scenario centred around a hypothetical 6.7 magnitude earthquake in Modulistan, a simulated third country. The seismic tremor, which hit on 2 October, is said to have affected over 316,000 lives, leaving 1,800 dead, 3,250 injured, and 4,000 missing. Recurring aftershocks have posed new tasks for the helping teams and made the conditions of a rescue more difficult. With the Modulistan Government seeking international assistance, this exercise aims to train, evaluate, and improve the preparedness of these elite units for actual operations.
“The INSARAG strategic objective is to more and more localise capacity building. The European Civil Protection Mechanism is a textbook example for this.”
USAR teams from Austria, Greece, Hungary, and Türkiye have joined forces to participate in a realistic simulation and worked together on the prepared worksites. This provides them with practical exposure, which mirrors genuine situations that arise during times of crisis in member states of the EU. All four teams can look back on a successful exercise. For the USAR team from Hungary, it was clear at the end that they had achieved recertification (IER) from INSARAG.
Field exercises for urban search and rescue modules and other response capacities.
Sectors
