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Public Flare Display and Rescue Demonstration
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DescriptionDISTRESS FLARE SAFETY EDUCATION DEMONSTRATION
In 2014 search and rescue were called out 5 times to reports of distress flares sightings. This was just an average year with few of the sighting being real distress flares and none as the result of someone in distress. Over the past 20 years there had been only twice that a sighting was for someone wanting assistance. Many of the sightings range from unexplained to flares being fired from the land for fun. On occasions the fallen flare has caused property damage, it has always been wasted time for both Police and particularly the volunteers who unpaid, willingly respond to do the hard work of search and rescue for no satisfying result. The day will come when the distress flare sighting may be the difference between life and death.
This this year Dunedin Marine Search and Rescue is celebrating 20 years of service for their Water Rescue Squad by engaging the boating public in a distress flare education and training opportunity where they may fire off their own or supplied distress flares and see what a distress flare looks like up close or at a distance.
Dunedin marine search and rescue together with its associated organisations, Water Rescue Squad and other volunteers is the largest organisation providing a MSAR service to the Dunedin Police that is capable of responding to distress incidents from the south of Stewart Island to Timaru into the Pacific ocean and across to the West Coast with its air sea rescue team - the Water Rescue Squad, and the rescue helicopter. Supplementing the team is also surf life saving inflatable rescue boats and specialised recreation boat crews and the important incident management team commanded by the Police SAR duty officers.
Formed in 1994 the Water Rescue Squad primary role is getting rescuers quickly to those in distresses at isolated locations and rescue them from the water before hypothermia has reached a danger point. In the past 20 years the team have responded to more than 250 calls for assistance, over two thirds of these were by making use of the rescue helicopter and assisting over 100 people.
Air sea rescue is not new to Dunedin Marine Search for shortly after it was formed by the Dunedin Police in October 1971 and then known as the Dunedin Marine Search and Rescue Advisory Committee; air drop life rafts were purchased. It is thought that these rafts have only been used on one occasion and unsuccessfully and just 100 meters from the shore. As the life rafts came to the end of their life they were phased out with last being in 2014. The decision is based on the history of over 1,400 local incidents where there is no record of an incident where they could have been used. For close to shore rescue, there was also the rescue scoop nets that were slung under a helicopter and the distressed person scooped out of the water and flown to dry land. The value of this method was shown during the 1980 Taieri floods when a husband and wife were rescued from their home surrounded by water at Henley and on standby during the Abbotsford slip.
The equipment used for all these rescues - the helicopter rescue winch, the rescuer’s winch harness, the patient sling, air drop life raft and the scoop net are not off the shelf stuff. Once manufactured locally for the job they are now covered by safety regulations. The scoop nets being the first to feel the pinch and withdrawn from service in 2014 due to these safety regulations. To meet regulations and special training requirements for air sea rescue adds to the volunteer’s personal contribution of many lost profitable and inconvenient hours given to saving lives at sea.
The progressive regulations and restrictions on sourcing equipment have created increased costs which this 43 year old group which struggles to manage on a “shoe string”. The first belt tightening being with the Rescue Helicopter which will be on display but the Water Rescue Squad will be unable to display their helicopter winching and rescue skills at this celebration.
Search and rescue is not a user pay or a Government agency sponsored expense for equipment, training etc and the volunteers should not have to pay to save a life, are the main stay of SAR. Dunedin Marine Search and Rescue not being part of a national body mainly due to its makeup to meet the local conditions and the types of incidents encountered being different to SAR experience found further north does not have access to the quantity of funds available to those others.
For a gold coin (large to cover expences) and by attending a safety briefing at St.Kilda Surf Life Saving Club from 7 pm on Sunday 16 November 2014 one can fire a parachute or a red hand held distress flare. Check out the Otago Rescue Helicopter, an ambulance and fire engine. Check out surf Life Saving and see their rescue boats in action rescuing people. For one whom missed tea a BBQ will be also there.
For those that do not wish to go to St.Kilda Beach any observation point overlooking the beach will give them the experience of sighting what a real distress flare should look like.
For those with expired distress flares to be disposed of take them to the club and have Dunedin Marine Search and Rescue dispose of them safely.
DateNovember 2014Geo location[1]
In 2014 search and rescue were called out 5 times to reports of distress flares sightings. This was just an average year with few of the sighting being real distress flares and none as the result of someone in distress. Over the past 20 years there had been only twice that a sighting was for someone wanting assistance. Many of the sightings range from unexplained to flares being fired from the land for fun. On occasions the fallen flare has caused property damage, it has always been wasted time for both Police and particularly the volunteers who unpaid, willingly respond to do the hard work of search and rescue for no satisfying result. The day will come when the distress flare sighting may be the difference between life and death.
This this year Dunedin Marine Search and Rescue is celebrating 20 years of service for their Water Rescue Squad by engaging the boating public in a distress flare education and training opportunity where they may fire off their own or supplied distress flares and see what a distress flare looks like up close or at a distance.
Dunedin marine search and rescue together with its associated organisations, Water Rescue Squad and other volunteers is the largest organisation providing a MSAR service to the Dunedin Police that is capable of responding to distress incidents from the south of Stewart Island to Timaru into the Pacific ocean and across to the West Coast with its air sea rescue team - the Water Rescue Squad, and the rescue helicopter. Supplementing the team is also surf life saving inflatable rescue boats and specialised recreation boat crews and the important incident management team commanded by the Police SAR duty officers.
Formed in 1994 the Water Rescue Squad primary role is getting rescuers quickly to those in distresses at isolated locations and rescue them from the water before hypothermia has reached a danger point. In the past 20 years the team have responded to more than 250 calls for assistance, over two thirds of these were by making use of the rescue helicopter and assisting over 100 people.
Air sea rescue is not new to Dunedin Marine Search for shortly after it was formed by the Dunedin Police in October 1971 and then known as the Dunedin Marine Search and Rescue Advisory Committee; air drop life rafts were purchased. It is thought that these rafts have only been used on one occasion and unsuccessfully and just 100 meters from the shore. As the life rafts came to the end of their life they were phased out with last being in 2014. The decision is based on the history of over 1,400 local incidents where there is no record of an incident where they could have been used. For close to shore rescue, there was also the rescue scoop nets that were slung under a helicopter and the distressed person scooped out of the water and flown to dry land. The value of this method was shown during the 1980 Taieri floods when a husband and wife were rescued from their home surrounded by water at Henley and on standby during the Abbotsford slip.
The equipment used for all these rescues - the helicopter rescue winch, the rescuer’s winch harness, the patient sling, air drop life raft and the scoop net are not off the shelf stuff. Once manufactured locally for the job they are now covered by safety regulations. The scoop nets being the first to feel the pinch and withdrawn from service in 2014 due to these safety regulations. To meet regulations and special training requirements for air sea rescue adds to the volunteer’s personal contribution of many lost profitable and inconvenient hours given to saving lives at sea.
The progressive regulations and restrictions on sourcing equipment have created increased costs which this 43 year old group which struggles to manage on a “shoe string”. The first belt tightening being with the Rescue Helicopter which will be on display but the Water Rescue Squad will be unable to display their helicopter winching and rescue skills at this celebration.
Search and rescue is not a user pay or a Government agency sponsored expense for equipment, training etc and the volunteers should not have to pay to save a life, are the main stay of SAR. Dunedin Marine Search and Rescue not being part of a national body mainly due to its makeup to meet the local conditions and the types of incidents encountered being different to SAR experience found further north does not have access to the quantity of funds available to those others.
For a gold coin (large to cover expences) and by attending a safety briefing at St.Kilda Surf Life Saving Club from 7 pm on Sunday 16 November 2014 one can fire a parachute or a red hand held distress flare. Check out the Otago Rescue Helicopter, an ambulance and fire engine. Check out surf Life Saving and see their rescue boats in action rescuing people. For one whom missed tea a BBQ will be also there.
For those that do not wish to go to St.Kilda Beach any observation point overlooking the beach will give them the experience of sighting what a real distress flare should look like.
For those with expired distress flares to be disposed of take them to the club and have Dunedin Marine Search and Rescue dispose of them safely.
DateNovember 2014Geo location[1] Relates to
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Public Flare Display and Rescue Demonstration (November 2014). Dunedin Public Libraries, accessed 30/08/2026, https://dunedin.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/199823