Who We Are

Responsible Authority

Cumberland County Search and Rescue functions under the authority of the local agency responsible for search and rescue, for example the State Police, County Sheriff, Fire Department, Civil Air Patrol Mission Coordinator, Local Emergency Manager , or Park Superintendent. will only conduct operations at the request of official agencies like these, and will directly support the agency.

How We Can Help

Cumberland County Search and Rescue is a wilderness search and rescue response agency that is available 24/7/365 depending on individual availability (we are all volunteers after all). We currently have two K9's in training for trailing that once certified, could be used in an urban setting.

We welcome the opportunity to train with other organizations interested in search and rescue techniques. We can also provide assistance with search related training to interested emergency service organizations within our service area.

CCSAR also has community outreach programs to help teach people to avoid getting lost or what to do if they should find themselves lost. We provide preventative search and rescue education, such as the Hug-a-Tree children's program. About twice a year, CCSAR is asked to provide and support services for events, and have assisted with communications, emergency response and evacuation for Rootstock Racing in the Michaux State Forest as well as Cunningham Falls State Park in Maryland.

The Cumberland County Search and Rescue team will respond to any location in the state of Pennsylvania. Our members live throughout Cumberland County and into Maryland. We are available for emergencies in other areas depending on travel time and availability. ​

We work with many emergency services organizations across the region. We will respond outside our normal service area in response to a mutual-aid request from any of these groups.

What We Won't Do

Cumberland County Search and Rescue are not here to take over fire departments, or law enforcement incidents. We provide specialized management and technical services in the outdoors, especially in rugged terrain. We consider our mission finished when the lost person or accident victim reaches a normally accessible area and we will continue until the subject is located, the personnel is no longer available to continue the search, or the search is called off by the authority having jurisdiction.

​We will assist law enforcement agencies with certain tasks, such as evidence collection or search and recovery of crime victims in wilderness areas. However, we will not be involved in any pursuit or apprehension of criminals nor participate in any high-risk searches involving fugitive recovery.