AS the world reeled in the aftermath of 9/11, emergency planners at Whitehall were asking themselves this question: how would Britain cope if it suffered an attack on a similar scale?

The disturbing reality was that British search and rescue techniques had hardly changed since the civil defence plans set up during the World War Two.

This sparked an overhaul of techniques and equipment. And they were put through their paces at a derelict Bovington Camp barrack block this week.

Specialists from two of the UK's 21 Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams, established two years ago, were on hand to show the Daily Echo and visiting fire chiefs their new capabilities.

USAR manager Simon Shilton said: "The US leads the way in many of these techniques and we have learnt a lot from them.

"USAR came into being after it was recognised we would find it awkward if we faced an incident similar to 9/11. We needed to get new equipment to deal with collapsed structures."

But what started as a reaction to world events evolved into a more comprehensive project.

Richard Coleman, of Dorset Fire and Rescue Service, said: "Basically, there had been a need for these sorts of urban search and rescue services for a long time. We are not just talking about massive building collapse.

"These specialist teams can be deployed to a range of disasters from large flooding to relatively small incidents."

The last major incident attended by USAR teams was the Warwickshire warehouse blaze that killed four firefighters last November.

Central government coordinates and finances the USAR teams, but on April 1 control passes to bosses in individual fire authority areas. Fire chiefs were at Bovington to get up to speed on the different equipment.

Dorset doesn't have its own USAR team, but can call on the Hampshire or Avon brigades.

Speaking from outside the former three-storey Bovington barracks, Mr Coleman said: "We needed to train in as realistic environment as possible, so the MOD lending us this building has been vital.

"This building used to house 500 people but the MOD are going to demolish it as part of their accommodation upgrade at the camp."

Among gear on show was new shoring equipment to prop up damaged buildings; state-of-the art listening devices and telescopic cameras to help locate trapped victims; and cutting equipment that can slice through steel girders in seconds or safely pierce concrete walls without injuring victims behind.

Firefighter Mark Webb said: "Hats off to the government - they have supplied some really good kit.

"We are talking hundreds of thousands of pounds. For example, the Delsar Life Detector has four sensors that can detect the sound of a little finger scraping through mountains of rubble.

"This equipment is vital, because if you cannot find a victim, they have no hope."

Among the hi-tech gadgetry, three-year-old sniffer dog Digger was also being put through his paces.

Handler Mike Barrett said: "You get a good dog and they are invaluable. The dog is a starting point - it gives the tech teams somewhere to start looking."

It is a sobering thought that in our ever-increasing technological world, a dog's nose still has a role to play.