Faculty
Trey Smith
Director of Fire & Special Operations Training
Email: rsmith8@wpcc.edu
Phone: 828.448.6708
Check-In & Base of Operations Location:
150 Coal Chute Rd., Morganton, NC
Itinerary & Operational Periods:
Day 1: May 15 , 2025 (Section #73667); 12 PM – 6 PM
Day 2: May 16, 2025 (Section #73668); 7 AM – 1 AM
Day 3 : May 17, 2025 (Section #73669); 7 AM – 1AM
Day 4: May 18, 2025 (Section #73669); 7 AM – 12 PM
Lodging & Camping:
The WPCC/ESTC will serve as the Base of Operations and has plenty of space for special operations teams wishing to camp. We encourage rescue teams attending to treat this 4-day exercise as a deployment exercise to test their response preparedness levels for deploying into regions where they may have to be self-sufficient for at least 48 hrs. There will be limited provisions for snacks and water throughout the exercise but no meals will be provided.
2025 Burke Search and Rescue Exercise
Burke County & NC Emergency Management, in partnership with the Western Piedmont Community College Fire & Special Operations Programs will host the 2025 NC Catawba Water and Land Search Exercise May 15th-18th in Morganton, NC
The exercise will be based in Burke County, North Carolina and utilizes several regional locations where real-time rescue scenarios are delivered. The BURKESAREX is a wide area search exercise designed to test water and wide-area search and rescue capabilities of responders from throughout the United Sates & Beyond.
This exercise will prepare rescue assets for long-term deployments into disaster environments.
A Base of Operations (BOO) will be provided with power and restroom/shower facilities and only basic “snacks”, bottled water and MREs will be provided for feeding.
Special rescue operation teams will respond & operate among multiple real-time rescue scenarios while providing time for equipping, transporting, deployment, and after-action debriefings to share best practices. All response agencies will be responsible for completing ICS forms, as well.
This 4-day real-time exercise begins at the WPCC/ ESTC that will serve as the base of operations throughout the entire exercise. Special operations rescue teams can select from a variety of training tracks they would like to participate that include:
- Surface & Swiftwater Rescue Missions
- Inflatable Rescue Boat Operations (Power & Paddlecraft)
- Wide Area Search
- Day & Night Operations
- Technical Rope Rescue
- Resource Interoperability
- Drone Operations
- Incident Management
- Equestrian Teams
- K-9 Search & Rescue
- Mountain Search & Rescue
BURKESAREX is designed to train special rescue operations teams for water and land search & rescue while test
Registration:
Attendees will need to complete our WPCC Online Pre-registration form below AND register in NC TERMS.