USAR History

Urban Search and Rescue History

Following the events of 11 September 2001, the government moved forward on a New Dimension Programme. The programme identified 17 strategic fire and rescue services to host a total of 20 Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Units in England and Wales (4 in London). This will provide a capability to form a national response to major emergencies involving chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) events, search and rescue, major flooding incidents and major transport incidents. The national capability will augment existing local and specialist capability based on nationally assessed risk and wider planning assumptions across the overall Civil Contingencies Framework. This capability will also be available for use by the service whilst carrying out normal operational incident response.