The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) is an emergency and rescue service dedicated to assisting the community. It is made up almost entirely of volunteers, with 226 Units located throughout New South Wales. The Units comprise of approximately 10,000 volunteer members, who are easily identified by their distinctive orange overalls.
While our major responsibilities are for flood and storm operations, the SES also provides the majority of general rescue effort in the rural parts of the state. This includes road accident rescue, vertical rescue, bush search and rescue, evidence searches (both metropolitan and rural) and other forms of specialist rescue that may be required due to local threats. Volunteers in a number of isolated communities have been trained as Community First Responders by the Ambulance Service of New South Wales. The Service's trained rescuers also support the full-time emergency services during major disasters.
The SES also assists other emergency services when they are performing major operations. These services include the NSW Police Force, the NSW Rural Fire Service, the NSW Fire Brigades and the Ambulance Service of NSW.
