Swiftwater and Flood First Responders work around the water and undertake bank-based and shallow water wading rescues as part of an SFR team. They can also support teams of Swiftwater Rescue Technicians at an incident. A First Responder will have the ability to self-rescue and perform rescues of team members and casualties at the level to which they have been trained.

Course content includes

• Rescue 3 philosophy
• Training standards
• Best practice guidelines for water rescue
• Hydrology and water hazards
• Floodwater dynamics and hazards
• Flood theory
• Personal equipment
• Technical and team equipment
• Pre-planning
• Risk assessments
• Incident size-up
• Incident management and site control
• Medical and decontamination considerations
• Considerations for night/poor visibility operations
• Mud, ice and unstable surface considerations
• Introduction to searching rivers and floods
• Communications
• Swiftwater swimming techniques
• Strainer swim
• Conditional rescues – talk, reach, throw
• Shallow water techniques
• Casualty management
• People and equipment entrapments
• Tethered boat options (if used by agency)
• Inflated fire hose (if used by agency)
• Flat-water sled paddling (if used by agency)