Voluntary Rescue Service in Hungary: The HUSZÁR Team

Péter Horváth,Tamás Hábermayer

doi:10.32565/aarms.2020.1.4

Péter Horváth, Tamás Hábermayer

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.32565/aarms.2020.1.4

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Abstract

HUSZÁR, the Hungarian National Organisation for Rescue Services, was founded in 2012 and now has a staff of over 80. HUSZÁR is a special rescue unit that can be deployed in domestic and international disaster management. Based on the United Nations International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (UN INSARAG) classification, HUSZÁR is a medium level urban search and rescue team and its units are equipped with special skills and technical equipment. A special feature of the team is volunteerism combined with professional interventional skills. Its subunits can manage individual interventions, they have participated in several international disaster relief tasks following earthquakes and tsunamis, and they have also played an active role in the preparation of other nations’ rescue teams.

Highlights

When a disaster occurs, the arrangement and performance of rescue operations as well as the management of the consequences place a significant burden on the defences of the affected country
The inclusion of voluntary rescue teams is an essential improvement of threefold significance
It is the local citizens who perform the very first intervention at the site of the disaster. They are present in the close proximity of the event, if they are not affected by the disaster, they can perform some immediate rescue operations

Summary

Introduction

The arrangement and performance of rescue operations as well as the management of the consequences place a significant burden on the defences of the affected country. Such situations require considerable mobilisation, high-level coordination of tasks and optimal distribution of the available resources. The inclusion of voluntary rescue teams is an essential improvement of threefold significance It is the local citizens who perform the very first intervention at the site of the disaster. [1] The voluntary Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team of Hungary, called HUSZÁR, has recently been re-classified in accordance with the INSARAG guidelines, so this paper is going to examine the highest professional level. Previous interventions of the member organisations were investigated and we reviewed how a complex unit can be established by combining several voluntary organisations

The HUSZÁR Rescue Team

Meeting International Guidelines