Spartanburg County Search and Rescue (SCSAR) began in 2006 with a simple mission: help those who are lost. We are an all volunteer team who currently consist of 150+ members of which 60+ are trained ground searchers, 10+ are K9 handlers (10+ K9's with 3 AMPWDA Level 2 trailing, 1 NASAR Trailing, 2 IPWDA HRD, 2 NASAR HRD, 2 AMPWDA Level 1 Air Scent), several are K9 handlers in-training, 8 are licensed drone pilots, several are trained side scan sonar operators, and 20 plus are support members.  Since our creation, we've been afforded the opportunity to assist with over 100 searches and in the process, create relationships with those in the SAR community.

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The bulk of of our SAR responses have occurred in Upstate SC, Western NC, and Central NC. We try not to be a team hindered by geographical boundaries. If there is a need for searchers, we'll do our best to help address that request for service.

 

Those requesting our services must be official public service agencies (LEO, OEM, etc). Once requested, we can provide one, several, or all facets of support (Ground, K9, Drone, etc) based on the need of the requesting agency. In addition, we'll recommend our partnering agencies to those requesting our services should they need additional manpower.

 

We currently have mutual aid/response relationships with several agencies/teams. The vision of our program is: To foster Cooperation, Communication, Coordination, and Collaboration within the Search and Rescue Community. We do this by partnering with our SAR family in the NC Search and Rescue Community and by creating the mutual aid/response partnerships referenced above.

 

We are always willing to expand our mutual response network and welcome any team who has an interest in training/responding together. Most importantly, we welcome teams who are committed to helping find the lost, whether that means helping clear lower probability areas, assist with containment, etc. We are not above any assignment and pride ourselves on humility and servitude. We hope all in the SAR community share that same mentality as we are all just tools in a large SAR toolbox.