Saxonburg VFC hosts mock missing person training exercise
SAXONBURG — All throughout Sunday morning and afternoon, Oct. 22, residents searched across Saxonburg for multiple missing people using every means available to them, including drones and police dogs. Fortunately, this time, it was just an exercise.
Volunteer firefighters, rescue personnel, and others from across Western Pennsylvania were invited to a mock missing person training exercise on Sunday, held at the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company grounds.
“The training’s intended for the firefighters who are an intricate part of the search party,” said Kathy Otruba of the Lower Kiski Search and Rescue Team. “When we get a call, it usually involves the fire department, so to help them better understand how we do a search and how everything melds together, we want to include them in it from the ground up.”
While the event was taking place in Saxonburg, the people organizing it were the Lower Kiski Search and Rescue Team out of Armstrong County. It was Susan Bronder, a dog handler for the Lower Kiski Search and Rescue Team, who helped secure the Saxonburg fire hall, as Bronder is also a member of the Saxonburg VFC.
“I sort of just took it upon myself to say, ‘Hey, we have this great hall. We have this great town. How can we use this to the advantage of our community?’” Bronder said.
Also taking part in this event were the Saxonburg VFC, the Butler County Fire Police Association, the Steel City K9 Emergency Response Team, Liam Search and Rescue, Air Search and Rescue, Port Vue’s Vigilant Hose Company, and Western Pennsylvania CERT.
The volunteers first met up at the fire house to witness a demonstration from the Lower Kiski Search and Rescue Team on missing person behavior. Afterwards, they spread out across Saxonburg to take part in a variety of elaborate missing-person scenarios.
One scenario, which originated from the parking lot of Knoch High School, involved finding a missing person with the help of a police dog using nothing more than the scent of the person’s hairbrush.
To help make the scenarios more realistic, the organizers sought out volunteers to play certain roles, such as missing people, concerned family members, and journalists.
Port Vue demonstrated how they use their drones in searches for missing people. Some of their drones have infrared and thermal cameras, as well as speakers which allow the drone operator to talk directly to the missing person when found.
“We are one of the few agencies in Allegheny County that have a certificate of authorization, so we have approximately 10 to 13 pilots that all fly,” said Port Vue drone captain Dan Sprouse. “I’d say it’s a pretty active drone program. We run approximately four calls per month, give or take.”
The Butler County Fire Police Association used the event as an opportunity to show off their new "instant command vehicle“, which will patrol large events such as the Moraine State Park Regatta and the Jeep Festival. The new vehicle will be outfitted with traffic control and security equipment and is capable of hauling up to 10,000 pounds. BCFPA president Eugene Bartlett says the vehicle is three-quarters of the way to being finished.
“Right now we want to add additional radios,” Bartlett said. “We want to put a ham radio in it. We want to put a CB in it. We also want to add on to our emergency services radios.”
