Butte County Sheriff-Coroner's Office Mass Fatality Plan

Butte County Sheriff - Coroner’s OfficeSearch and Recovery entails locating, collecting and documenting postmortem humanremains, property and evidence at the incident site. It requires a standardized approachto ensure that the location of remains and materials at the scene is documented. Searchand recovery activities will only commence after all rescue operations have beenterminated. No remains shall be moved, or touched by workers until direction andapproval have been given by the Coroner.Search and Recovery personnel are responsible for the laborious physical removal andcollection of human remains in whatever condition they may be found. It’s important thatsearch and recovery workers are prepared for the stress of recovering dead bodies andbody parts.Once workers have reported to the staging area, a briefing will be held, the IncidentSafety Plan will be reviewed, assignments will be issued, and if appropriate, workers willbe divided into teams based on the following responsibilities:• Photography and Documentation Team- Responsible for photographic(video, Polaroid, digital images, hand sketches) and written documentation ofhuman remains, property and other evidence found at the incident site prior tomovement. All photographers must sign a Release of Copyright form.Photography and documentation must occur prior to the removal of humanremains. This is to ensure the integrity of the scene and facilitate accurateidentification of the deceased.• Search and Recovery Team- Responsible for searching, removing, andtransferring of human remains from the incident site to the incident morgue.This team coordinates human remains transportation needs and resourcerequests with the Logistics section.• Property and Evidence Team- Responsible for recording, collecting,packaging and transferring property and evidence found at the incident siteusing standardized ‘chain of custody’ documents.At the onset of search and recovery operations, a grid map should be prepared usingsurveying or equipment or computer gridding. An organized search pattern should beestablished that incorporates search and rescue intelligence. This should entail acomprehensive search of assigned grid or search patterns and consider the use of aidessuch as global positioning devices for each body or body part discovered. Engineeringand surveying consultants should be utilized as needed.All remains should be photographed and grid marked prior to recovery. Suitable stakesor flags will be placed at the location of each body or body part and the flags will beBCS-CO Mass Fatality Plan 46July 2009July 2009