INSTOW, DEVON - On Wednesday 16th June, the team worked with both RAF Search and Rescue, HM Coastguard and Devon & Cornwall Police on an inter-agency display for local school children.  The focus of the event was to show the children how the agencies worked and what sort of things they do to make us all safer outdoors.

The team started the day describing both the search and evacuation phases of our work, with the children getting hands-on with search party equipment and the team's emergency shelter.  A brief introduction to the Casualty Bag and Bell Stretcher then followed and culminated with the children carrying each other across the beach.

The highlight of the day however was the winching demonstration.  Whilst the RAF Sea King circled the beach, the team prepared a casualty in the Bell Stretcher and were supported by the smoke flares and radio communications provided by the Coastguard.  Following a quick check by the RAF winchman, team member Graham was smoothly winched aboard the hovering helicopter.

The students loved playing with all the gear and the noise of the helicopter whipped them up into a frenzy ready for their afternoon lessons back in the classroom.

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The Exmoor Search & Rescue Team (ESRT) relocated its headquarters yestarday from Barnstaple to its new premises on Pathfields Industrial Estate, South Molton.

The registered charity provides a search and rescue service across large parts of Devon and Somerset assisting the Police in locating lost, missing or vulnerable people and recovering the injured or ill from remote locations.

The move was made possible through a legacy donation enabling the team of unpaid volunteers to purchase a modern industrial unit back in December and fit it out to their own specialist requirements.

This was facilitated by Devon building contractors Michael Thorne Construction (MTC) who donated steel and manpower to the charity enabling the construction of a mezzanine floor for offices and a training room.  The new base also garages the team’s vehicles and stores vital rescue equipment.

Team member Andrew Ball said: “The new base is strategically located on the North Devon Link Road allowing us to mobilise quickly.  We will also greatly benefit from improving our equipment and vehicle storage and maintenance as well as enhancing our extensive training requirements in an environment customised by us for that purpose.

“Michael Thorne Construction has been great supporters of Exmoor SRT and we are very grateful to them for donating materials and expertise to make this a first class facility.”

Graham Easton, MTC Director said: “Andrew and his colleagues do a magnificent job and are trained and ready to go out in any conditions every single day of the year.  It costs over £15,000 each year to run the team and this is raised entirely by donations from the public because they receive no government funding.  We were delighted to be able to help them in their new building.

Exmoor SRT welcomes enquiries about becoming a trainee team member or team supporter to help with fundraising and those vital background activities which allow the team to fulfill its role as a police and community resource.

One of the most recent training exercises for the team saw a joint exercise with Avon and Somerset Police successfully rescuing a teenager from limekilns near Wellington, Somerset. 

The aim of the evening was to practice call out procedure, the efficient deployment of teams and to develop joint working practices with the local PCSO’s and Avon and Somerset Police Tag teams.

The story unfolded that a teenager, Tom, who had been staying with his Grandmother in the village of Holywell Lake, had been playing with friends in the local Millenium wood.  The callout rendez-vous was the Holywell Inn, where a team Search Manager and Police POLSA (POLice Search Advisor), planned the search. 

Teams were first deployed to look for the Grandmother who had gone off in search of her grandson. Having found the Granny, a little scratched from brambles and with a twisted ankle, it appeared that the grandson was no longer in the Millenium woods.  With some help from the police phoning around Tom’s friends, it transpired that the friends had fallen out and Tom had gone off to play at the limekilns near Thorne St Margaret on his own.  Using local knowledge of the area, team’s were swiftly sent to perform a thorough search.

Tom was soon located at the bottom of the cliff face with a head injury and broken leg.  With reinforcement teams arriving with stretchers and medical kit, Tom was soon evacuated out of the steep bowl, across fields and to the awaiting landrover.  So concluded a successful exercise, with all parties working well together to resolve the scenario in only two and a half hours.

Thanks go to the Landowner of the Limekilns for permission to use his land, Holywell Lake pub for the use of their function room from which to base the search, and of course to Avon and Somerset Police.

This month 3 members of Exmoor Search and Rescue Team visited the newly formed Tiverton Police Cadets to inform the group about the team’s work and to get them involved in some activities that simulate what happens on the ground during a search and rescue callout.

Having shown the Chief Superintendent their parading skills, the 20 strong group listened to a brief summary of what the team does before getting hands on with radios, stretchers and casualty bags.  A healthy competitive spirit resulted in very efficient log rolls of a casualty into the casualty bag, "hand-over-hand" stretcher carries and transmission of instructions to reproduce an image over the radios.  The evening finished with a quick tour of a team landrover.  Thanks goes to the cadets and PCSO’s who run the group for a very enjoyable and productive evening.