Just after 17.00hrs early this wintry evening the team was paged by NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Operations Centre, regarding the increasingly snowy conditions prevailing in Greater Manchester, and the probable need at some point during the evening for the teams assistance.

With snow fall depth ultimately approaching twelve inches in some parts of Bolton and the outlying areas, calls upon the team soon started, with the team responding to six calls up to midnight.(And a further eight in to the morning of Saturday 26th January)
Calls handled upto midnight included one request for assistance from NWAS (Lancashire) and four from NWAS (Manchester) The locations included Wheelton, Brinscall, Bury, and the Bolton area, involving Emergency Ambulances stuck on snowy and icy roads, (Some responding to incidents, some with patients on board) ‘escorting’ Emergency Ambulances to Hospital on snowbound roads, and a call to a male with a serious leg injury. One further call this evening happened when our BM2 vehicle returning from an incident chanced upon a RTC on the snowbound M61 Motorway, and provided safety at the scene upto the arrival of Lancashire Constabulary resources.

Further calls this evening were also made upon the team, all snow fall related, including possible assistance to GMP at 23.41hrs to assist with the evacuation of a pregnant woman who was snowbound (This situation resolved itself as we were being given the information) these and other minor calls this evening, do not feature in our ‘Incident Listings.’

In total twenty one team Call Out list members were involved this evening.