Search and Rescue Incident Management: Lessons from Wilderness Emergency Response
By
Maggie Hewitt
Crispy enough to crunch, soft enough to enjoy. A good bake.
Summary
The article shares insights from a search and rescue volunteer who compares emergency response in wilderness rescue operations to incident management in tech companies like Duolingo. The author discusses lessons from a Managing Lost Person Incidents (MLPI) course, highlighting that the most challenging incidents aren't complex but chaotic, requiring different approaches than typical tech incident response. The piece explores how search and rescue operations involve managing uncertainty, incomplete information, and emotional factors that differ from technical system failures.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledI've been volunteering with Allegheny Mountain Rescue for about five years now. For most of that time, my mental model of search and rescue looked a lot like incident response at Duolingo.
That model mostly works until it doesn't.
Recently, I had the opportunity to take a Managing Lost Person Incidents (MLPI) course, which wrapped up with an in-person segment in Badlands National Park.
Just like in search and rescue, the hardest incidents aren't complex. They're chaotic.
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