Joint-Service Training with Mountain Rescue

This evening, Rossendale CFRs teamed up with Rossendale & Pendle Mountain Rescue Team to deliver a great training session that portrayed two simulated casualties. Clowbridge Reservoir was the chosen site for the training, offering it’s uneven terrain and beautiful views of the countryside.

CFRs assessing the patient; a mountain biker who collided with a hiker at high speed and has become entangled in the bike, with a suspected c-spine injury.

RPMRT volunteers arrive on scene and liase with CFRs, asking for a sitrep.

CFRs and Mountain Rescue volunteers prepare to extricate the patient on a stretcher (with spectators around).

CFRs and Mountain Rescure volunteers load the patient onto an inflatable rescue mat that provides comfort and further stabilises the patient.

A beautiful sunset promptly disturbed by a swam of flying ants!

Mountain Rescue and CFRs preparing to extricate the patient onto a ‘bell stretcher’. This was paired with a large wheel for easy naivgation on the uneven ground

CFRs and Mountain Rescue ready to lift the patient and place onto the stretcher.

Two pairs of CFRs were responding to each patient, with some extra hands along the way when it came to lifting and extricating.
Overall, the evening went well, and it’s safe to say we all learned something! A key takeaway that CFRs got to know was the amount of equipment, specifically drugs realting to pain relief, that the Mountain Rescue Team can prescribe to patients. We soon realised that our Entonox supply would deplete if rescue teams didn’t arrive for some time.

As the evening came to an end, we were also fortunate enough to learn that Flying Ant Day exists!
To quote Dean on the evening:

Get stuck in, everyone!

It turns out Dean wasn’t talking to us, he could obviously communicate with insects and released an army of flying ants onto the team, high-vis being their preferred choice of colour. Walking down the hill with both hands holding the stretcher as thousands of flying ants swarmed us reminded me of a Stephen King novel. Oh well, at least they don’t bite, right?