First Responders Day — Response Team prepares to find the missing and lost

Homeland Security Response Team for Southeast Missouri simulated searches for lost or missing persons in a training session on Wednesday, Oct. 19.

Gathered at Cape Girardeau County Park, using topographical maps, GPS units and compasses, four teams walked across North Park toward four specific sets of GPS coordinates.

Awaiting them at each destination was a baseball-sized rock, painted orange with a number printed on it. Brad Dillow, battalion chief at Cape Girardeau Fire Department, had placed the rocks earlier that morning. The rocks represented a person lost in the woods.

"This is a basic day for them," Dillow said. "On other occasions we'll go out to some of the big forests in the area like Trail of Tears (State Park) where we have hundreds and hundreds of acres to search."

Dillow said one of the training objectives was to not only locate a lost individual, but also give them any medical attention needed, then get the person out of that area. The training focused on the team's GPS skills and grid search techniques.

Brad Dillow, battalion chief at Cape Giradeau Fire Department, tracks the digital signatures of members of a Homeland Security response team. Dillow was using a program called Active911 in conjunction with Google Earth to track the personnel.Danny Walter

"If someone was lost or injured, but they had a cellphone, we could ping the phone and get a GPS location and find them," Dillow said.

COVID-19 interrupted many training sessions, and Dillow said he's seen some regression in the team's skills and abilities.

"That few years of COVID hurt us," Dillow said. "We weren't able to get together and train. Now were trying to catch up and cover the basics."

Also, Dillow said, the last few years, the team roster has been regularly changing due to members retiring and new personnel coming in from each department. So on training days such as this, the older, more experienced members pass on their knowledge.

In the command vehicle, Dillow and two other team members were concentrating on another objective. They had computers set up with a program called Active911.

Deputy chief Sean Mitchell with Jackson Fire Rescue monitors the weather during a Homeland Security Response Team training exercise.Danny Walter

Used in combination with Google Earth, the program could pinpoint on the map the location of team members who had the app on their phone.

Sean Mitchell, deputy chief of operations at Jackson Fire Rescue, said he can use this system to see each team member and help guide them in and out of unfamiliar locations.

"We can use these systems to our advantage," Mitchell said. "This gives us a big picture view of where everyone is."

However, Dillow added, "All this technology is great when it works, but we can't rely on it 100%." Thus the analogue compasses used in the training session.

The HSRT covers Region E, 13 counties of Southeast Missouri. The team is comprised of Sikeston Department of Public Safety, Stoddard County Ambulance, Jackson Fire Rescue and Cape Girardeau Fire Department. Even though the team is multijurisdictional, Dillow said the members operate as one.

"Effectively, there are no separate departments here," Dillow said. "We are the HSRT team. We've divided the team up so it's a mix of all the departments based on their skills — paramedics, EMTs, law enforcement. We put a few in each group. That way we cover everything."

There's a lot of money invested in this team, Dillow said. A technical rescue program is very expensive. He pointed at one of the search and rescue vehicles and said the truck and all the rescue equipment on it cost approximately $1.5 million to $2 million.

"And that's not even all we have," Dillow said. "One department alone can't afford all that. It makes more sense to take a regional approach where we share it. The money from the state that goes into the team benefits the entire region. We're here for them."

At the same time, Dillow said the team is ready to go anywhere at anytime. They get requested to go out to other regions in the state, and once even as far as Texas during Hurricane Harvey.

"They called us. They needed us. We went," Dillow said.