Avon & Somerset Search & Rescue

17 ASC Log 0250 The Force Incident Manager for Avon & Somerset Police contacted the team at 08.54 with a request to help search for a missing person. ASSAR members were put on standby at 09.36. Following ongoing discussions the team was called out at 11.20 to search woodlands, cliffs, quarries and a cyclepath in the Leigh Woods area of Bristol. Several search parties were deployed into these areas. The team was stood down at 17.10 pending further investigations from the police.

16 ASC log no: 116. The CRO was called by the police control room requesting assistance for the Fire and Rescue Service; for a report of two people who had become stuck on a ledge in Cheddar Gorge at about 19:30.

The incident was actually to remove three Spanish speaking students who were stuck near ‘French Pinnacle’ in Cheddar Gorge. They were unharmed, but very frightened and disorientated. A&S SAR technical team, were assisted in the removal by a SWAST ambulance crew, HART from Exeter, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue, and Avon Fire and Rescue. The incident was stood down at 22:33.

15 ASC Log No 593. ASSARs Chief Rescue Officer was contacted at 13:20 with a request to assist South West Ambulance Service in carrying an injured female from Crook Peak to an ambulance. The team was called out at 13:30. The team provided casualty care and safely moved the injured lady onto a stretcher and carried her down to the ambulance at the roadside. The team was stood down at 14:27.

14 ASC Log No. 0438 ASSAR Chief Rescue Officer was contacted by AS Police at 15.11 requesting assistance to search for a missing person in the Blagdon area. ASSAR was called out at 15.28. The missing person was located and no further action required. The team was stood down at 15.56.

13 ASC Log No. 0221 ASSAR was called out by Avon & Somerset Police at 16.02 to conduct a missing person search in the Coalpit Heath area. Several teams were tasked with searching lake edges, woodlands and abandoned railway lines. The search was suspended at 21.45 pending further investigations.

12 ASC Log No 653 ASSAR was put on standby at 19.34hrs by AS Police to assist in a search for a missing person. The team was called out at 19.42 to the Chew Magna area. Three search teams were deployed. Police dogs and the police helicopter were also searching adjacent areas. The incident was unresolved and the team was stood down at 22.54hrs.

Continuation of existing Log 653:

01/07/13 ASSAR was called out at 15.00hrs by the Police to undertake searches of other locations in the Stanton Drew area. Three search teams were deployed. ASSAR was stood down at 20.19hrs.

02/07/13 Further assistance was requested by the police, ASSAR members resumed searching at 11.00hrs. The team was stood down at 13.38hrs further to the missing person being located. No further assistance was required.

11 ASC Log No 222 At 03.57hrs ASSARs Chief Rescue Officer was contacted by Avon & Somerset Police requesting assistance with the removal of a casualty from the River Avon in the Avon Gorge. The incident was dealt with by other emergency services. No further action required. ASSARs involvement ended at 04.04hrs.

10 ASC Log No 1193 Avon & Somerset Police contacted ASSAR at 23.01 requesting assistance with a despondent intent on self harm on the Clifton Suspension Bridge. ASSARs tech team was placed on standby. ASSARs Chief Rescue Officer and Team Leader attended the incident. A female was moved to a place of safety at 00.08. No further action required. The tech team was stood down at 00.10

09 ASC Log 1084. ASSAR was contacted at 21.10hrs on 26/05/13 by Avon & Somerset Police concerning reports of two people stuck on the rockface in Avon Gorge. The request for support was cancelled at 21.16 as the two were located safely.

08 ASC Log No 892. ASSARs Chief Rescue Officer was contacted at 19.20 by Avon & Somerset Police informing them of a missing female in the Leigh-on-Mendip area. The team was put on standby at 19.30 for a technical search of quarries and a land search. The team was called out at 19.45. The injured missing female was located in a quarry, appropriate medical care was provided alongside SWAST. The casualty was transferred to coastguard helicopter at 22.00, with help from Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service, and taken to Frenchay Hospital. The team was stood down at 23.00.

07 ASC Log 633. The Chief Rescue Officer was called by SWAST ambulance control to notify of an accident in a reservoir hole near Cheddar. The control asked for attendance on scene and to confirm that the police and cave rescue had been contacted. A team of divers were in a cave when a rock fall had been reported. A male was reportedly trapped and a female had suffered injuries. One of the cave divers had come to the surface and made the report to the ambulance service. The injured female ‘self rescued’ to the surface and was taken to hospital by the waiting SWAST crew. The male appeared at the surface a short while later. Mendip Cave Rescue attended but was stood down, and assistance was received from SWAST ambulance crews, Devon HART team, Bristol HART team and several crews from D&S FRS. After both casualties were safely on the surface the incident was stood down.

06 ASC Log No. 833. The Chief Rescue Officer (CRO) was called by SWAST clinical hub in Exeter advising of a male in a cave in Priddy, Mendip, who required rescuing. The CRO contacted the police control room and ensured the cave rescue team were called out via SAR CALL system. The CRO met the police inspector and Sgt on site at Priddy Green and escorted them to the cave entrance at Swildon’s Swallet. Some of the underground party members had returned to the surface and could report on the casualty condition. SWAST stood down the HART response. Members of cave rescue arrived on site and entered the cave. The CRO stood down and handed the incident over to the Mendip Cave Rescue controller.

05 Log 705 The team was called out at 16.30 by Avon & Somerset Police in response to a male, with minor injuries, who was stuck, high-up on cliffs in Cheddar Gorge. The man was located and moved to a place of safety by ASSAR technical rescue experts with assistance from local fire crews from Cheddar Stn supported by additional resources from Bridgewater Stn. The incident was stood down at 20.16 further to the casualty receiving welfare support, medically assessed and then transported to Weston-Super-Mare Railway Stn so as to be able to make his journey home.

04 Log 8739 ASSARs Chief Rescue Officer was contacted at 15:34 by Avon & Somerset Police to search for a missing person in the Southmead-Brentry-Henbury area of Bristol. The team was put on standby and then called out at 16.05. The weather was cold and with snow forecast there was raising concerns for the man’s welfare. The team was stood down at 17.05 further to the missing person being located safe and well by police officers just outside our search area.

03 Log 583 At approx 16:15 A&SSARs Chief Rescue Officer was contacted for consultation and advice re a likely callout of the team to search for two missing girls, for whom concerns for their safety and welfare were raising in the south Bristol area. Whilst the matter was in discussion with the duty area Inspector and the CRO the girls turned up unharmed, the matter was closed.

02 Log No.1091 At 23:04 the local Inspector in Bath contacted the Chief Rescue Officer (CRO) about a seriously ill, despondent male, who was reported missing in the Timsbury area. The CRO tasked an immediate response in 4×4 vehicles, the weather conditions still being very cold and snow on the ground, and began to arrange a full team callout, and liaise with the FIM and PolSA as this incident was particularly time critical. A near neighbour reported seeing the missing person, and the police quickly located him, the ambulance service assessed and treated him. The team was stood down at 23:28 and the response driver was recalled.

01 Log No. 0078 At about noon, after very heavy overnight snow falls, the Force Incident Manager contacted the Chief Rescue Officer requesting 4×4 drivers to support the community in the North Bristol, Bath, Keynsham, Radstock/Paulton areas. Five of the team’s vehicles were crewed and dispatched to the police stations in these areas. The drivers of these vehicles performed many tasks and attended many incidents, assisting the community during the severe weather. These incidents included; assisting police with various RTCs, taking police officers to their beat patrols, and moving a severely ill patient to Frenchay Hospital. The ambulance services took the opportunity of using their medical co-responders to attend to certain medical incidents that were in very remote and isolated places, including one female who had severe cardiac complications.

The response drivers stood down at various times during the afternoon, the final stand down coming at 21:30 hrs.

31 ASC Log no. 256.  The Force Incident Manager called the team CRO using the SARCALL system at 12:22 hrs. He was seeking assistance with locating a vulnerable seven year old male, who had been reported missing from his residential care home in Chard, Somerset. The CRO managed to offer some advice regarding containment of the immediate area, and search techniques. The team was preparing for a callout when the police reported the child had been found, safe and well by his carers, at a local shopping centre. The team was stood down at 12:40 hrs.

30 ASC Log 1321. The police contacted the CRO at 23:13 hrs with an alert from Foxtrot division (Wells), about a possible missing person. The duty Sergeant contacted the CRO to seek advice about locating a vulnerable 14 year old female who was missing from home, believed to be in flood water in Gurney Slade. Advice was passed on search procedure and containment of the area near her home. The child was located by the police before the rest of the team could be called out.

29 ASC Log No. 418. The Force Incident Manager (FIM) used the SARCALL system to request assistance from A&S SAR. The incident was a missing 58 year old male, who was insulin dependent, in the Somerton and Charleton Mackrell area of Somerset. The call out was made at 14.28 hours. The Search team was called out and an RV and control point was set up in the local school. The teams searched until 02.00 (07/12/12) when the search was temporarily suspended, due to darkness and fatigue amongst the search party members.

07/12/12 The search was resumed during the morning from the Charleton Makerell community sports hall. Due to limited search resources, Exmoor SAR team were called to assist with the search. Nothing was found and the team was formally stood down at 18.11 hrs.