Darwen

Apr 23 2016

Incident 44/2016 – Continuation of major fire on Darwen & Turton Moor

As a continuation of the moorland fire on Turton and Darwen moor from the previous night the team returned to Crookfield Road car park RVP at 06:00 to meet with the staff from the mobile fire control unit on scene to discuss what help the team could be to the fire service.

Also in attendance were colleagues from Bay Search and Rescue Team who arrived with their Hagglund tracked vehicles to transport 1000 litre containers of water onto the moors for the fire crews.

Throughout the day our team vehicles were used to move crews around the moors, team members accompanied fire crews onto the moor to provide local area knowledge, some navigation assistance and again allowed us to track the crews from our control vehicle on our MRmap software.

Fortunately the fire came under control and at around 16:30 the team stood down and returned to base locations.

This was an excellent example of multi agency working by 2 fire and rescue services and two voluntary organisations.

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Apr 22 2016

Incident 43/2016 – Major Fire on Darwen & Turton Moor

The team was contacted by Lancashire Police control room requesting we speak with Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service to assist them with a developing moorland fire around Darwen.  Team Leader Alistair Greenough made contact with the Group manager from Lancashire Fire and Rescue who asked we meet with a Greater Manchester Fire Crew and Station manager at Lower Pasture Barn Farm and liaise with how we could best assist.

IMG_3277As the fire front on the eastern side of the moors had been brought under control the decision was made by the Lancashire Fire Incident Manager to relocate the resources to a carpark on Crookfield Road outside Tockholes where a plan was formulated and we were requested to transport fire crews and equipment onto the moors and provide a tracking facility using our mountain rescue computer software so the fire control room could monitor where the fire crews were at all times.

Using local knowledge of tracks and paths Bolton Mountain Rescue were able to take the crews close to the fire front making their response more timely, otherwise it would have been a case of moving everything by hand.

IMG_3300On hand was Andy Ryding (Ex Bolton MRT member) United Utilities Countryside Ranger who was able to provide a huge amount of assistance and local knowledge which allowed the vehicles best access to the moors.

All four of our team landrovers were used as well as our control vehicle which was used to run the mountain rescue side of the incident.

At approx 02:30 the decision was made to stand the team down as we would be required to return in the morning to assist with further fire operations.

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Feb 28 2016

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.

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Dec 8 2015

Incident 91/2015 – Missing male, Sunnyhurst Wood, Darwen

At 00.45hrs in the very early hours of this morning, we were paged by Lancashire Constabulary Force Control Room, regards the teams assistance with an urgent missing person search in Sunnyhurst Wood, Darwen, Lancashire, in circumstances giving the Police concern for his welfare.

Our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE made immediate contact with the Force Incident Manager, whilst our Deputy Team Leader Chris Greenhalgh liaised with fellow Call Out Contacts Mike Marsh and Steve Fletcher to arrange drivers to enable an appropriate quick response to this call.

By 00.53hrs our Deputy Team Leader had paged out to the team to go to immediate standby for this search, with a small number of team members now on route to our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ or preparing to leave home to go to our other vehicle garage locations.

In further liaison calls with Lancashire Constabulary FIM, at circa 00.57hrs, news was received that the missing male had possible been located by an NPAS Helicopter, in the vicinity of a farm building in the area of Sunnyhurst Wood.

At 00.59hrs, a nearby Police patrol met up with this person, confirmed it was the missing man, and transported him to care, and with the team no longer being required, the FIM confirmed our full stand down at 01.00hrs.

A short interruption to our nights (early morning) sleep, a good result for NPAS and Lancashire Constabulary and importantly for the welfare of the missing man.

At this stage a number of team members had declared themselves available.

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Nov 7 2015

Incident 84/2015 – fallen horse rider on Darwen Moor

At 08:55 this morning the team was contacted by the North West Ambulance Service (Broughton EOC) via SARCALL. NWAS were requesting our assistance at an incident on the moors above Darwen.

A 51 year old female had reportedly been thrown from her horse after it had been spooked whilst out riding on the tracks on Darwen Moor.

The call was answered by Deputy Team Leader Chris Greenhalgh whilst team members assembled at the vehicle garage locations and donned waterproofs for what would prove to be quite a damp callout.

The first team vehicles were en-route to Darwen from Bolton by 09:10; arriving at the designated RVP at Sunnyhurst Inn, on the fringes of Darwen Moor, by 09:40, whereupon they made contact via the Airwave radio system with the NWAS crew who had already begun to make their way on the moor accompanied by team member Dave Cook.

The North West Air Ambulance had also been called to this incident but due to the prevailing weather conditions of low cloud was unable to land close to the scene.

The female casualty involved had reportedly suffered serious injuries as a result of this accident, so an initial party of five team members was deployed in our BM2 Land Rover ambulance onto the moor. After careful driving for approximately 1km, the vehicle arrived at the scene of the accident, some 40m below Darwen Tower, on the slopes above Sunnyhurst Hey Reservoir.

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In heavy rain and wind, specialist rescue equipment was used to help treat her injuries, and keep her as warm and dry as possible. The casualty was then placed on board a SAR Alpine Lite Mountain Rescue stretcher. With the arrival of additional team members at the scene, the injured female was carried back to the waiting NWAS Emergency Ambulance at the Sunnyhurst Inn RVP.

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Whilst the casualty was transferred to the NWAS ambulance for onward transport to Royal Preston Hospital, two team members (now both quite damp) returned back onto the moor to retrieve the vehicle that had been left at the accident scene earlier.

All team members were back at the road by 11:20 and vehicles returned to their base locations, where equipment used on the callout was  put out to dry. Meanwhile, team member Neil Aspinall made his way to Royal Preston Hospital to recover several items of equipment which had been taken to hospital with the casualty.

All said and done, the incident was finally concluded by 14:00.

The following resources were involved in this incident:

  • North West Ambulance Service
    • Broughton EOC Air Desk dispatcher
    • Emergency Ambulance and two crew
  • Lancashire Constabulary
    • Two divisional officers (initially called as the horse had reportedly bolted off the moor, into domestic gardens)
  • North West Air Ambulance – Aircraft was unable to attend due to weather conditions
  • Bolton Mountain Rescue Team
    • Three Mountain Rescue Land Rover ambulances
    • 13 team members

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