At 22:05 this evening we received a pager callout from NWAS (Manchester) regarding a report of a young girl who had fallen at “Dead Mans Cliff” (a local name) in the Longsight Lane area of Bolton.

Whilst our Team Leader was collecting information about this incident, we received a linked pager callout from Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service control who had received a separate report of this incident, who in turn were also requesting our assistance.

Team members responded to the initial RVP in the Longsight Lane area of Harwood, Bolton.

Upon arrival at this RVP our first responding members met up with the first responding GMFRS resources. Further team resources arrived alongside other GMFRS resources.

Fire personnel who had arrived prior to the MRT arrival first aided the 16 year old girl, who had fallen down a steep slope within the valley of the Bradshaw Brook.

A small number of team personnel were dispatched to the incident scene but were not required to assist the fire service who carried out their own evacuation of the young girl with their equipment.

An NWAS emergency ambulance left the scene just before 23:00 en route to Royal Bolton hospital with the girl on board, who had suspected spinal injuries.

At the same time that the 16 year old girl arrived at the ambulance RVP, a nearby 18 year old girl collapsed whilst observing proceedings.

She was initially treated by fire fighters and then passed over for treatment by our team members (primarily Alistair Greenough, an experienced senior A&E nurse in his full time job). She was taken by one of our team vehicles back to her home address along with her father.

The following resources were deployed to this incident:

• GMFRS Resources deployed as part of their PDA (pre-determined attendance), to this type of incident:
  • 3 pump appliances, (2 from Bolton Central, 1 from Bolton North fire stations)
  • 1 hydraulic platform from Bolton Central fire station
  • the water rescue unit appliance from Heywood fire station
  • 1 GMFRS incident commander in charge, (from Salford fire station, but home based at time of call)
  • 1 GMFRS Performance Review Team Officer
• NWAS (Manchester) emergency ambulance, from Bolton ambulance station
• 19 Bolton MRT members on scene plus 1 stood down responding
• 4 Bolton MRT Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances, including our incident support vehicle carrying comprehensive line rescue equipment to back up that carried in our two first response vehicles.

This incident was concluded back at our Ladybridge and Bolton fire station bases by midnight.

Postscript: This exact area is very well known to the team from previous missing person search operations and rescues in the teams history, the latest of which occurred on June 6th 2009, incident 41/2009, when the highest priority search area was the same location as this incident meriting detailed search cover by our team and other resources. (Including the brook itself and searches of the various small rock outcrops).