Search and rescue group members receive certification
Members of Kachemak Bay Search and Rescue participated in a 3.5-day hands-on training session, Jan. 30 through Feb. 2, in Homer. By the end of the training, those 18 members were nationally-certified searchers.
KBAYSAR is an all-volunteer search and rescue team operated through a business license under the Friends of Kachemak Bay State Parks, a Feb. 2 press release says. They are also a member organization of the Alaska Search and Rescue Association, which supports SAR teams across the state with equipment, software and training.
Alison O’Hara, a member of the FKBSP board of directors, started KBAYSAR last spring. According to the release, she was galvanized by a search and rescue call-out that occurred in July 2024, after a hiker visiting from France was reported overdue for her pickup in Kachemak Bay State Park. Park rangers and volunteers mobilized and conducted a search for the hiker, who was ultimately self-rescued two days after being reported missing. The release states that this incident “underscored the need for a trained and organized local search and rescue group.”
“We tried to rally and put together an ad hoc group of searchers, but we didn’t find her — she found herself,” O’Hara said Thursday. “I just really felt like there was a need to have an organized effort, a team and a plan.”
O’Hara added that while there is a small SAR team in Seward, other than KBAYSAR, there currently isn’t another officially designated SAR team on the Kenai Peninsula.
The training course held earlier this month was facilitated by the MAT+SAR Search and Rescue group — a nonprofit started in 2003 that serves the entire Matanuska Susitna Valley and other locations throughout the state as directed by Alaska State Troopers — and saw participants from Clam Gulch, Anchor Point, Homer and Kachemak City/Fritz Creek. The course included practical scenarios with K9 dog teams and, according to the release, covered a range of topics including lost person behavior, wilderness first aid, K9 teams, search techniques, mapping and standard emergency response systems. Kachemak Emergency Services donated the use of their station and rescue equipment for the training.