At 22.19hrs this evening, NWAS (Greater Manchester Area) Parkway EOC contacted our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE direct, regarding the possible assistance of the Bolton MRT.

An NWAS crew was responding to an incident in the locally named ‘Rabbit Rocks’ area, alongside the Leeds Liverpool Canal / Top Lock system at Rose Bridge, Ince-In-Makerfield, Wigan area.

Given the circumstances involved, EOC were awaiting a confirmation whether we may be needed to help evacuate an asthmatic female teenager casualty from this area.

In consultation with other team call out contact members and those living close to our vehicle garages who would normally collect vehicles on a call out, a small number of team members were arranged to collect vehicles should the team be required.

It was agreed with NWAS EOC that our Team Leader would proceed to the incident RVP whilst awaiting confirmation the team would be required or not.

By 22.40hrs the casualty, with a large group of teenagers at the time of the emergency call to the Ambulance Service, had still not been located, and with concerns for her welfare, NWAS contacted GMP for search assistance and the involvement of a Police helicopter to locate the casualty.

NWAS confirmed the team was now required, and at 22.49hrs a full team pager call out took place.
Our Team Leader arrived on scene at the Ambulance RVP at 23.01hrs, and further liaised with NWAS EOC, when at 23.07hrs NWAS confirmed the casualty had now been traced to a nearby residential address.

At 23.10hrs the team was paged to stand down, with GMP resources arriving on scene at this same time.
Shortly thereafter the NWAS crew returned, along with a small party of the casualties friends who had been helping the Ambulance crew try to locate her in the ‘Rabbit rocks’ area.

At the time of our stand down, our Incident Control Vehicle had just arrived at the RVP, along with three other team members, and our first of four responding Land Rovers was minutes away from arriving.

The NWAS Emergency Ambulance crew then departed to check the young girls condition at the nearby address she had been located at.

The following resources were involved in this incident;

• NWAS (Greater Manchester Area); EOC Parkway Control Room Manager, one NWAS Emergency Ambulance, 2x crew members.
• Greater Manchester Police; 4x Divisional Officers and one Police Divisional Van.
• Bolton Mountain Rescue Team; 4x Team members on scene at the RVP at stand down, with our Incident Control Vehicle, 13x further team members stood down responding, including many already mobile or about to go mobile in all four of our responding Land Rover Defender Mountain Rescue Ambulances.