Latest News

Our annual sponsored Cross Bay Walk now confirmed for Sunday 18th July 2010

We can now confirm that our major fundraising event for the year will be on Sunday 18th July. Our Cross Bay walk led by Queens Guide Cedric Robinson will start from Arnside and take us across the Bay for a unique day out. Can you help raise funds to support our team by joining us?
:: Find out more or register for the Bay SAR Cross Bay Walk 2010 ::

Bay SAR team in the snow!

A busy few weeks for the team after all the recent heavy snow across Cumbria. Hagglund 1 and its crew has been working in and round the Grange over Sands and Allithwaite area transporting people around, helping recover cars and more recently assisting a stranded Asda delivery van. Hagglund 2 has been in and around Lindale and the Lyth Valley. The Landrover Ambulance and crew has been operating in Milnthorpe, across to Gatebeck and Crooklands, where amongst other jobs it assisted a stranded Ambulance and helped transfer an elderly lady by stretcher from her home so she could be transported to Lancaster Royal Infirmary. :: Snow photos ::

Mike Davis, Bay SAR Training Officer receives Scouts Bravery Award

As well as being a long serving member of Bay SAR, Mike is also a Scout Leader, and in recognition of his efforts during the floods in Cockermouth he was one of 12 members of the Scouts in the UK to been honoured by the Scout Association for bravery on Boxing day 2009. Mike said, 'I was the driver of our all-terrain emergency response vehicle. We were responsible for checking the water levels on the main street, and evacuating people from flooded houses. It was a hard 26 hours but the things I’ve learned and done during my time in Scouting helped enormously.' Chief Scout Bear Grylls said: "these Scouts have shown great bravery and their acts are an inspiration to many". :: Flood Photos ::

Bay SAR team involved with Rescue work at Cockermouth

After two local callouts; one on Thursday to help look for a missing person in the Floods at Ulverston, and one early on Friday to locate a person seen in the sand gullies on Morecambe Bay, the BSAR team were called to assist in the Cockermouth floods rescue effort.

As part of our new role assisting Cumbria Fire and Rescue, the teams Hagglund ATERV (all terrain emergency response vehicle) and Landrover Ambulance was escorted under blue lights to Cockermouth on Friday afternoon where the 8 strong BSAR crew worked alongside teams from all over the UK to help evacuate residents, and provide assistance to those wishing to remain in their houses. Initially in the raging fast moving floods, powerful boats were used. Subsequently as the water levels dropped and the amount of debris increased in and below the water, boats are less useful,but vehicles still cannot be used, so the Hagglund ATERV capable of carrying 18 people in warm, dry and relative comfort was a useful asset. The crews worked from arrival Friday afternoon through to late Saturday, catching bits of sleep in the vehicles in between tasks. The Hagglund was the last vehicle operating in the towns flooded Main Street at 1.30am Friday night, and the first vehicle back in at first light mapping the flood depth and perimeters.

Subsequently both our vehicles were tasked to the 'Gote' area on the far side of the river which had been completely cut off apart from by rescue boat since the start of the floods. The Hagglund again was the first vehicle into the area and spent the rest of the day evacuating residents, including a medical emergency case by stretcher, and ferrying in bridge surveyors and engineers. It also recovered dozens of computers holding vital medical records for a large proportion of Cockermouth residents from the flooded medical centre. The devastation was clear to see with cars thrown everwhere and roads and walls ripped apart by the force of the water. Koi carp, obviously from garden ponds were found by the team swimming in remaining flood water on the estate. As the flood levels dropped and other rescue teams could gain careful access on foot, the BSAR team were stood down and returned to base early Saturday evening after a busy three days.

Some images of the area - in our photo gallery, and we can be seen briefly on sky news (report after the advert!). If anyone has photos of the team and vehicles we would be grateful for them for our records - we were a bit too busy to take many of our own! Email us

 

BSAR becomes an official Technical Rescue Support Unit for Cumbria Fire and Rescue - October 2009

After proving the teams capabilities to Cumbria Fire & Rescue Senior Officers during joint training exercises and live incidents in the past 18 months. Followed by a visit from the Cumbria Chief Fire Officer Dominic Harrison to the BSAR station at Flookburgh. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on Thursday 22nd October. This has resulted in Bay Search and Rescue becoming an official on-call Technical Rescue and Support unit for the whole of Cumbria, who can be called on by local Fire Crews who have the need of our specialist vehicles, equipment and skills.

This will be for situations such as: Moorland and forest fires; to safely transport fire crews and heavy equipment to the scene. Animal rescue: a recent success extracting a horse from quicksand at Silverdale proved this point. Flood rescue; transporting crews, equipment and welfare into flood areas and recovering people back out safely (and warm and dry!). Recovery of crashed vehicles, aeroplanes etc from difficult to access areas. And of course any operations involving snow or blocked roads and gaining access to stranded vehicles and cut off homes.

YouTube video page added September 2009

We have added a new page with links to various BSAR, Hagglund BV206, Morecambe Bay and Quicksand videos. :: youtube videos page ::

Team feature in Peli Advert Aug 2009

BSAR currently appear in the latest Peli products advert. The picture shows our team members undertaking a quicksand rescue simulation for local Fire and Rescue crews on Morecambe Bay at night using a Peli RALS light. We purchased this some time ago as a self contained rechargeable portable LED light system that in many circmstances replaces our previous petrol generator/tripod/halogen light setup. :: photos ::

Cross Bay Walk 19th July 2009

Our annual cross bay walk for 2009 was a great success, over 200 people joined us for breezy but bright weather and only one rain shower. Everyone really enjoyed it and we would like to express thanks from all the team for your support.

Airboat progress July 2009

Our airboat has now been delivered to the local company who are fabricating the sealed decks and new superstructure for the hull. Trials are being done with new equipment which will be added to it when completed.

Filming with the BBC for the Coast Programme June 2009

We spent a day with the very nice team from the BBC Coast programme recently. They were filming in the Morecambe Bay area for next years series and had heard about the quicksand we have here on our doorstep. Along with colleagues from Arnside Coastguard we showed them how our specialist rescue techniques are used to extract someone (in this case presenter Alice) trapped in Quicksand. :: photos ::

 

:: Read More News from Bay SAR::