This page contains accounts of actual events
that for what ever reason, stand out in the minds of individual members.
Missing man near cliffs
2002 The full team were tasked to Torquay after a report of a missing male who was possibly suicidal.
The team members were divided up in to threes and fours to search a specific
area along the coast path near the cliffs. As one of the teams finished
its search area and about to call-up for further instructions when one of
the lads said he and one other were going to have a look further along the
path while we call up control. Two minuets later the lads call-up saying
they have found the missing male. The small search team caught up with
the first two and were shown where the man was sitting.
He had climbed over a fence towards the cliff, gone down a short bank and
was perched on a small ledge on the cliff about 120 ft above the water.
The man appeared calm when we arrived so it was decided to secure him to
a line while calling for backup. Two coastguards put on harnesses tied
off to some trees, one CG held back so as not to frighten him but was close
enough should he be needed, while the other walked towards the man but as
he did so the man became withdrawn and uncooperative. He was secured
with a prussic which is a small rope strop put around his arm as this was
the only place to get a line around him.
The CG tried talking to him trying to get him to walk away from the edge
but he would not respond until he tried pushing the CG away which happened
to be towards the cliff about two ft away, luckily the second CG managed
to get down to them and help restrain the man.
It was decided that the safest and quickest way would be for a cliff man
to be lowered to them, put a harness on him and the three of them would carry
him to safety.
We later found that the small ledge the the man was sitting and the one two
CG also sat on with him was in fact a pile of leaves compacted, every time
you knocked it it shook.
Boy stuck on cliff 9/02/02- 15.50 The full team were tasked
to Gas works beach after a report of a boy stuck up the cliff, as we
approached we were sent to a house just above Oil cove near by. I can
only imagine what the elderly lady in the house thought about 15 Coastguard
running through her cabbage patch. To get to the lad was not going
to be easy as we had to work in a small area about 30 feet above a railway
line with the cliff on the other side. After making a clearing
we set set up our gear and got the cliff man ready. During all this
our Station officer had managed to get to the beach below and was talking
to the young lad. Finally the cliff man was ready so we started to
lower him down, we lost coms with the cliffman about halfway down so we had
to rely on our SO at the bottom to talk for him. The cliff man managed
to secure the lad in a strop then it happened, he slipped and swung
about 7 feet hitting the rock face hard against his back. He was complaining
of pain in his lower back, so they were both lowered slowly the final 10
feet until the young lad could be released safely. Helo 169 was requested
to recover our cliff man after a Paramedic checked him over at the bottom.
Once on scene the lads from the helo checked him over again then flew
him to Torbay Hospital where I was there to meet them after securing the
landing site. Its a strange feeling looking at one of your own in so
much pain.
The initial examination at the Hospital suggested there was not a problem,
but latter found he had broken two Vertebra in his spine.
Women near cliff edge
31/08/01-19.57 We were called to an area in Torquay after Police
requested our help as they had a women on a cliff who may jump. On our arrival
we quickly located her in some woods on a cliff edge. The Police had requested
one of their negotiators to attend, so all we could do was get ready - just
in case.
We had to set our gear without making any noise, to avoid upsetting the women,
who was some 40 feet below us. Normally we would use long steel stakes,
hammered in to ground, to act as anchors for our ropes but putting these
in would of made too much noise, instead we used the trees to anchor our
ropes.
The Police negotiator had arrived and was trying to talk to her and get her
back from the edge. One man was placed further down but to one side of her,
wearing a safety harness and rope, one man was rigged in a cliff harness
above her.
Our boss said "be ready at a moment's notice" about two minuets later we herd shouting from below then we got the order to go.
The cliff man was quickly lowered down through the bushes towards where the
girl and negotiator were. At the same time the man to there side in a harness
went side to there location.
They found the Policeman hanging onto the women, who was half way over the
edge, one Coastguard grabbed the Policeman, to stop him from going over,
while the cliff man was lowered just over the edge and secured the women
in a harness.
The order was given to raise the pair safely back over the edge.
Once safely back on the path the women was taken to Hospital for a check up.
The negotiator had managed to persuade the women to move away from the edge,
but as the Police man was helping her back she change her mind and tried
to jump, He held onto her hands but she was too heavy and his words were
" if you hadn't arrived when you did and secured her, she would of slipped
through my fingers".
Person over the cliff
13/07/00 - 00.08 The full team was called out to Daddy
hole after a report of a person over the cliff. As we proceeded to
the area we were expecting to be faced with a normal recovery - far from
it. When we arrived on scene there was a burnt out wreck of a van and
about 20 firemen looking over the cliff, with the police helicopter hovering
over head. The helo had found a heat source on the cliff, which
made finding the casualty slightly easier. We rigged up a cliff man and started to lower him down over the edge
to the casualty, being guided by the helo from above. This took slightly
longer than normal, as the cliff man had to climb through 6 ft bushes and
over trees on his way down. The casualty was found about 80 ft down
and 150 up from the bottom. It was clear to the cliff man that the
cas needed to be stabilized before being moved so, using Berry Head team,
a paramedic was lowered with a second cliff man to the casualty. During
what felt like hours but was only minutes, the three of them stabilized the
casualty and called in Rescue 169 who was now flying over head after Oscar
99 had to leave. The winch man from 169 was lowered with a stretcher
to the waiting team on the cliff, who managed to strap the casualty in while
balancing on branches from a tree. The casualty was then winched away
and taken to hospital. Once the Helo had delivered the casualty to hospital, he was called
back to help recover 2 members of the lifeboat who had climbed up the cliff
and become stuck . Sadly the casualty died three days later in hospital.
UU BURT, Oscar 99, 169, Fire Brigade, LB
Village flooded 24/12/99 At about 4.30am on Thursday night
we had a call from Police HQ, saying that a village about 1 1/2 miles inland
(called Galmpton) had suffered severe flooding and there was a person missing.
Could we launch our boat to do a search? When we arrived on scene, there were about five houses flooded, but
one was about eight feet under water. The Fire Brigade had been on
seen since about 2.30am and had managed to recover an elderly lady - cold
and shocked. Then as we were about to launch, they managed to recover
the body of the missing male. After that, the Police needed to know
that the rest of the residents were ok, so we were tasked to do house to house
searches, while wearing dry suits and life jackets. Luckily only one
resident needed to be evacuated, he was suffering from the cold as
all electricity had been shut off. It's not every day you get a call to launch your Coastguard R.I.B.
in the middle of a village.
Man over the cliff
14/08/99 At about midnight we were tasked
to Meadfoot in Torquay after a report that a car had been driven over
the cliffs. On arrival we lowered two cliff men down to assess the situation, sadly
the driver had died. He was evacuated by Helicopter to Hospital.
Later that day in the afternoon we had a second call, that a man had fallen
off the cliff and was in the exact spot as the car. As we proceeded
we all thought that some one had reported the car over the cliff thinking
it had just happened, but when we arrived on scene it soon became apparent
that there was somebody over the cliff. We lowered two cliff men and two
paramedics over to stabilize the casualty, who was eventually evacuated
by helicopter to Hospital. It turned out that the second man to go
over the cliff was a council safety, rep trying to take pictures
of the car that had gone over in the morning, he had lost his footing and
fallen about 100 feet.
Bomb
13/08/99 Brixham harbour had a spate of people
putting empty ordnance shells outside the Harbourmasters office, each time
we were called as well as the E.O.DV and the Police, but each time the shell
looked harmless. The last time this happened someone had put a ordinance shell in a
fish box again outside the office. But this time the shell was identified
by E.O.DV as a Sea Dart, a modern missile head that could do a lot of damage.
The normal procedure for the E.O.DV is to load the device on to their truck,
then take it to a safe area for detonation. This time as it was so
dangerous the council would not let it through the streets (just in case).
So the device was driven by boat out to sea to be made safe. Luckily since that incident there have been no more unwanted gifts
outside the harbour office.
Boat sinking
14/08/98 While on patrol in the C.P.B around
the Torbay area, a jet ski raced up to the boat to inform us that a speed
boat was in trouble off Paignton beach. When we arrived on scene,
the speed boat had been swamped and had sunk to water level, leaving
( 7 ) people floating in the water. We managed to get the persons
on board but now it was quite crowded which made it even harder to save
the speed boat especially as it was starting to enter the surf zone. So Torbay
inshore Life boat was tasked to assist. They arrived on scene and we managed
to take the people and vessel back to Paignton harbour. I believe seven persons is the most we have rescued from the water
at any one time.
HM Coastguard