General information

Hellenic Rescue Team of Attica is a union of citizens and a community centre, consisted entirely of volunteers that wish to offer their time, expertise, knowledge and personal effort in assisting fellow citizens in case of an emergency. It is an independent, non-profit organisation that operates mostly for Search and Rescue (SaR) in three main fields: Wilderness (mountains, forests, non -urban areas), Water (open sea, coastline, rivers, lakes, floods) and Urban (earthquakes, floods, tsunamis). For each field of operations there is a corresponding element of highly trained individuals, ranging from level-1 support members to level-4 fully operational members, all acting as a team and tailored to each specific operation at hand.

HRTA is consists of several divisions: The Wilderness SaR division, the Water SaR division is responsible for operations in the open sea, in inland lakes, rivers and floods, the Urban SaR provides the location, extraction and initial medical stabilisation of victims trapped in confined spaces due to natural disasters, structural collapse, transportation accidents, collapsed trenches and mines. HRTA has developed a training program both theoretical and practical, based on the international accepted INSARAG and FEMA guidelines and manuals. 

HRTA is registered with the General Secretariat Civil Protection (GSCP) of Greece. HRTA collaborates closely with EMAK (Fire Service Special Task Force responsible for SaR) and other Firefighting Services in common exercises, training and operations. Also, HRTA is actively involved in the JRCC (Greek maritime Search and Rescue) action plan.

Role in the project

Hellenic Rescue Team of Attica (HRTA) is involved in WP1, WP6 and WP7. HRTA will serve as a first responder partipating member in the project and will act as a domain expert in the fields of Wilderness, Water & Urban SaR operations for the consortium, providing insights and team-level viewpoint in terms of requirements, top-level specifications and safety procedures (WP1). It will also act as an integrated tester and operator, end-user and demonstrator of the new procedures and technologies that will be designed & developed during this project (WP6). Finally, it will act as a society-level disseminator for related SaR organisations and the general public in Greece via participation in open events and educational sessions presenting the project and its results (WP7).

Participating members in the project