Rescuers in action during one of the callouts. Photo: NNPMRT
Rescuers in Northumberland were called into action three times in 24 hours.
Volunteers from Northumberland Mountain Park Rescue Team and North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team were called out on Monday to help an injured walker near Milecastle 39 on Hadrian’s Wall.
Iain Nixon, team leader for Northumberland national park team, said: “We received a request from Northumbria police to help after a Northumberland national park ranger and volunteer ranger went to assist the lady who was walking along Hadrian’s Wall.
“They were able to provide immediate care and contact the police.”
As team members were deploying, two local team members quickly arrived at the scene and provided first aid to the injured walker and stabilised her injury. Additional mountain rescue volunteers arrived at the site and helped carry the casualty to a mountain rescue vehicle for a short journey to the waiting ambulance.
The incident involved 14 team members for just over two hours.
Late on Tuesday morning, ambulance staff requested mountain rescuers’ help to deal with an injured mountain biker in Kielder Forest.
Mr Nixon said: “Given the difficult-to-access location, we quickly mobilised both teams.”
The rider was treated by an ambulance paramedic before being evacuated on a mountain rescue stretcher to the awaiting ambulance.
Almost immediately, rescuers received a second request for help.
Andrew Miller, duty controller, said: “We don’t usually get two requests for help in the same afternoon. This time, we were asked to assist in the search for a missing child near Alnhammoor in the Breamish valley.
“Fortunately, we had other volunteers who could respond, and we were able to deploy another vehicle. Given the information that a child was missing on the hills, this was a serious concern.”
As rescuers were devising a search plan and team members were driving into the Breamish valley from the Kielder incident, a helicopter from the National Police Air Service located the missing child and safely reunited them with their family. “We were delighted that this incident was resolved so quickly; it’s another great example of inter-agency work,” Mr Miller said.
The two incidents involved 20 team members for a total of six hours.
