Tonight 29 team members travelled to the Batridge Road car park at Turton & Entwistle Reservoir, Bolton, for the team’s regular Wednesday night training exercise

On this very cold evening we were also joined by two volunteer exercise casualties with the exercise arranged by team member Matthew Hailwood, concerning two injured persons reported to be in the vicinity of Edge Foot Farm.

Run as if it were a real incident, initial information was sketchy at best; two tree surgeons were reported injured but with no definite location and no way of contacting the casualties (which isn’t as far fetched as it may seem – mobile phone reception in the area is notoriously poor). Accordingly two search parties were deployed to find our pretend casualties based on the information given – and fortunately they were found relatively quickly!

Further team members were then utilised to deploy medical equipment for casualty care, swiftly followed by additional equipment for evacuation. Our exercise casualties – playing the role of tree surgeons – were reported to have suffered a fractured pelvis and femur after falling from a tree. Team members used this exercise to hone their casualty care, scene management, extrication and control/liaison skills.

Our thanks are expressed to our two exercise casualties who volunteered tonight – especially considering the very cold weather conditions!