Welcome to the official homepage for Bay of Plenty Response Team
NZRT16 based in Tauranga.
History and activities
The Tauranga Civil Defence Rescue Team has been around since the 1980s. In 2004 the team came under the ownership of Tauranga Search & Rescue Inc. (TSAR), with a contract with the Western Bay of Plenty Emergency Management Office to provide a light USAR Team.
The team was registered as NZ-RT16 in April 2006 and is the only one of three teams left in the Bay of Plenty; NZ-RT15 previously based in Rotorua and NZ-RT17 previously based in Whakatane (both currently in recess) being the other two.
Since being registered we have been used by the Police to provide a High Angle Rope Team for various jobs from locating and retrieving lost persons to clearing areas from a search area. The team was deployed nationally to assist in the February 2011 Christchurch Earthquakes and within the Bay of Plenty and other regions for other declared emergencies.
Capability
The team consists of a mix of talents. We bring various skills from; various first aid training levels, tradespeople from different backgrounds, experience from other emergency services and search and rescue organisations. This brings us a good range of skills from outside the normal team training.
The team has training in Storm Response, Flood Response, Coordinated Incident Management Systems (CIMS), Managing Search Operations and Land Search & Rescue.
Team goals
In the new response team environment, we are looking to focus on the needs and risks in our area and enhance the Western Bay's capacity to respond.
The team members are all keen to progress their capabilities and improve their skills across the board. As this is a voluntary service, this means giving up our time to attend regular training sessions, sometimes including weekends and/or time off work.
