Local Search and Rescue Capabilities

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – First Responders are called to handle many scenarios where people are trapped or need to be found inside of some very dangerous surroundings.

Muskingum County is home to the Ohio Emergency Management Agency Region 8 Urban Search and Rescue Unit which covers a 10 county span.

“It’s a multifacet unit, it’s for whatever type of emergency we could have,” Muskingum County Emergency Management and Office of Homeland Security Director Jeff Jadwin said. “Whether it’s a trench rescue, confined space, high angle rescue, building collapse, anything like that, that we need a lot of heavy equipment to take care of the rescue and securing the scene. So the only thing that we don’t do with this unit is water rescue.”

Muskingum County purchased the equipment with federal funding post 9-11 and is fortunate to be able to provide the assistance to other Region 8 counties while having it here for our first responder training and local emergencies.  

“Most generally what we’ve dealt with in the past has been trench collapse and grain bin rescues so. And it’s very helpful, it’s been in different parts of the county so it goes where it needs. It’s just an all purpose, all hazards vehicle that we can take and do a rescue,” Jadwin said.

While other counties equipment has worn out or was never purchased, Muskingum County is still making use of their aging equipment, to which federal sustainment dollars are currently unavailable due to FEMA being temporarily curtailed.