RED RIVER GORGE, Ky. (LEX 18) — Search and rescue crews in Kentucky work every year to locate people and bring them to safety. Like many first responders, that includes going into potentially dangerous situations. For search and rescue teams, however, there is no death benefit provided should something go wrong.
Wolfe County Search and Rescue is advocating for a bill that would extend those benefits to team members around the state.
“If something should happen to a search and rescue member during a mission, there's no death benefit provided,” said spokesperson Kevin Osbourn. “Senate Bill 47 attempts to rectify that situation.”
The state of Kentucky provides a death benefit to the family of first responders who were killed in the line of duty, but that benefit is not extended to search and rescue crews. That's something Osbourn and Chief John May with Wolfe County Search and Rescue hope that they can change.
“We're all volunteers,” May said in a state committee meeting last Thursday in Frankfort. “We don't get paid anything to do this and we risk our lives every time we go out”
May shared a moment from a 2019 rescue attempt where something went wrong.
“We showed up, found out that there was a lady that was screaming for help somewhere below Chimney Top,” May said.
An issue occurred when he went rappelling down.
“I ended up falling 150 feet,” May said. “Really the only thing I can remember about that is my wife and young child walking out that trailhead, while my team was carrying me out to an ambulance, and seeing them and seeing the, you know, their faces...If I hadn't survived that, you know, what would my family have done?”
Search and rescue is more than helping hikers and climbers in the Red River Gorge. After natural disasters like flooding and tornadoes – both of which affected Kentucky in 2025 – search and rescue crews assisted people affected.
“We risk a lot so that other people can live,” Osbourn shared. “We save lives so other people can live and we believe that search and rescue team members deserve the same protection that other first responders receive.”
State senator Matt Deneen is sponsoring SB 47 to extend death benefits to include search and rescue. That bill passed through a committee last week.
Up next, SB 47 is expected to be discussed in the state senate on Wednesday.
