At 17.23hrs this evening, the team was paged by NWAS (Greater Manchester Area) EOC Parkway, to respond to the report of a collapsed male, unaware of his location, within the extensive Haigh Hall Plantations of Wigan.

Our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE replied to the call and obtained further information.

A further call out page was made at 17.33hrs.

Attempts were made to SARLOC the male concerned, which met with no success, and a rapid search was quickly set in to motion in liaison between our Team Leader and the GMP Force Duty Manager, utilising Police Officers and a Police helicopter, alongside the responding NWAS resources, and the first arriving Bolton MRT team members – Nick Berry and our Training Officer Alistair Greenough, who living nearby had arrived on scene at 17.45hrs and met with the responding NWAS personnel.

The emergency services RVP was Lodge Hall Lane / New Hall Lane off Wigan Lane, Wigan.

With the Police helicopter searching overhead, GMP Officers / MRT and NWAS searching on the ground, at 18.09hrs came the news from NWAS that the male casualty had recovered and managed to find his way home, where GMP met with him to ensure his safety.

A team stand down, plus that of GMP and NWAS resources was made at circa 18.10 to 18.15hrs.

Excellent on scene and ‘control’ liaison between GMP / NWAS and BMRT was yet again a feature of this our latest incident this week.

The following resources were involved in this response and search:

• Greater Manchester Police – Force Duty Manager, seven Officers deployed to the search.
• NWAS (Greater Manchester Area) – EOC Parkway, Rapid Response Vehicle with solo crew member Paramedic, and an Emergency Ambulance with two crew, all three from Wigan Ambulance Station.
• National Police Air Service – NPAS 21 helicopter from City Airport Manchester (Barton)
• Bolton Mountain Rescue Team – two team members on scene at time of stand down, two Land Rover Defender mountain Rescue Ambulances, call signs ‘Bolton Mobile 2 and 4,’ and our incident Control Vehicle, ‘Bolton Mobile 6,’ all stood down responding, close to the incident scene RVP alongside at least nine team members stood down responding.