Coastguard training becomes real rescue drama

Coastguard training becomes real rescue drama

Cleethorpes Coastguard members on ‘mud rescue’ training were able to put their skills to the test for real.

They were demonstrating to Senior Coastal Operations Officers that although Covid-19 had prevented them from practising and refining their skills this year, they had still maintained the standards required to allow them to continue as a ‘Mud Rescue Team’, when the incident happened on Sunday.

A  spokesperson said: “Just as we were finishing our final task, a member of public approached us and asked if we would like to put our training into practice and pointed to his uncle who was stuck in the mud up to his knees about 400 hundred meters from our location.

“We deployed two of our ‘Mud Rescue Techs’ who quickly reached the casualty through some challenging deep mud. He was safely recovered and did not require any medical assistance.”

This was Cleethorpes Coastguard’s 131st incident of the year.

“Thankfully another good outcome, as the tide was coming in and the area where the male was trapped was soon cut off by the incoming tide as the creek quickly filled up,” said the spokesperson.

“The first informant made exactly the right choice and decided not attempt the rescue himself, which without a shadow of doubt would have presented us with two casualties, if he had tried to free the casualty.”