Incident 29/2016 – Search for a missing male in Darwen

Very late this evening at 23.57hrs, we were paged by Lancashire Constabulary in regards to an urgent and developing search for a missing 43 years old man in the Earnsdale / Sunnyhurst area of Darwen, in circumstances giving Police concern for his welfare.

The call was answered by our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, who liaised with a Lancashire Constabulary Missing Person Search Manager regards this search incident.

A Police helicopter and a considerable number of Police Officers had already been involved in the search, which included the moorland steep sided wooded valley of Sunnyhurst Woods, commencing late evening, Sunday 28th February.

Various MRT deployment options were considered by Garry and the Police Missing Person Search Manager , resulting in a full team call out at 00.26hrs in the early morning of Monday 29th February 2016.

This entailed our Trail Dog searching the local area, with a small number of immediately available Bolton MRT members planned to be on scene in direct support.

During further liaison with he Police Missing Person Search Manager, our Team Leader was informed that the missing person had been located by Police and at 00.35hrs a stand down pager call was made to those members responding or about to.

At this stage our Trailing Dog Search Handler Steve Nelson, with Trail Dog Boris had just deployed from his home address, together with Elaine Gilliland from Bolton MRT – his usual navigator.

Another ten team operational team members were just about to depart to assemble at our team vehicle garage locations at Ladybridge Hall Base /HQ, GMFRS Bolton Central Community Fire Station and GMFRS Bolton North Community Fire Station.