Incident 76/2010

At 14.46hrs this afternoon we were paged by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service to assist GMFRS at a ’Fire Service Special Service Call’ incident involving a male stuck on the disused high level Partington Railway Bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal, in the vicinity of Cadishead, Irlam.

After gathering details from GMFRS Control our Team Leader Garry Rhodes paged out a full team call out at 14.52hrs.

At 15.08hrs our first team member Craig Lamb, followed at 15.10hrs by Fred Taylor (Both trained in structures rescue) arrived on scene at the emergency vehicles RVP on the main road alongside the Partington Bridge.

Shortly after the arrival of Craig and Fred, GMFRS Firefighters successfully managed to coax the man involved to safety, he then promptly continued on his way. (He had decided to take a short cut over the disused / derelict 150’ high bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal, when he became stuck, calling for the Fire Service)

A stand down of responding MRT members was initially sent over our radio system with a full pager stand down message being sent at 15.17hrs.

By this stage a small number of other team members had arrived on scene including our Team Leader and Deputy Team Leader, with three of our Land Rover MR vehicles also responding with the necessary rope rescue equipment on board.

The following resources were thought to have been involved in this incident;

• Bolton Mountain Rescue Team, 20 x Team members responding, with two actually on scene, and eighteen stood down en route. (Three Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances)
• NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Ambulance and two crew members from Cadishead Ambulance Station.
• Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, 1x Incident Commander, single Pump Appliance and Aerial Ladder Platform vehicle from Stretford Fire Station and single Pump Appliance from Eccles Fire Station.
• Greater Manchester Police were also aware of this incident.