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Rescue comprises responsive operations that usually involve the saving of life, removal from danger, liberation from restraint, or the urgent treatment of injuries after an incident. It may be facilitated by a range of tools and equipment necessary to deal with the specific circumstances.
Rescues may be necessary in a wide range of circumstances and environments, and specialised procedures have been developed for many of these. A rescue may also be performed on an ad hoc basis by the people who are available on site, using equipment available on site or assembled from available materials, particularly when the rescue is urgent or it is unlikely that specialist assistance will be available within a reasonable time. First aid medical attention is often closely associated with rescue, and may be a necessary part of a rescue.
Equipment used might include search and rescue dogs, mounted search and rescue horses, helicopters, the "jaws of life", and other hydraulic cutting and spreading tools used to extricate occupants from wrecked vehicles. Rescue operations may be supported by rescue vehicles operated by rescue squads.
Searches are often associated with rescues when persons are missing and likely to be in danger.
Body recovery is also closely associated with rescue operations, and may be subject to different legal constraints. Occupational safety and health legislation may be waived for rescue operations where there is a realistic probability of saving a life, but not for body recovery.
Interspecies rescue can occur when people rescue animals, when animals are part of a rescue team, and less often, when animals rescue people on their own initiative.
Self-rescue is the process of getting out of an emergency by one's own efforts as an individual or a group.