At circa 15:50 this afternoon, our Team Leader was contacted by NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Control Centre requesting the team’s assistance to help with a large volume of emergency calls as a result of the persisting wintry conditions in the Greater Manchester area.

A full team callout was made at 16:00 to which 17 callout list members responded.

Three vehicles were declared to assist NWAS Manchester with this step-up/peak-demand period, with a further two team vehicles (crewed) on standby to 1) assist the other team vehicles if neccesary, and 2) to be on Base/HQ standby in case of a seperate Mountain Rescue incident.

Our three vehicles available to NWAS Manchester were crewed with appropriately trained and experienced crew, given the taskings that they were to be used on. Following mobilisation of the team members our first call came at 18:06 with our last call coming at 22:40.

In total eight seperate incidents were dealt with including two code red, three code amber, and three code green calls.

The majority of the calls were in the Bolton and Farnworth areas, mostly involving falls and medical conditions.

In some cases team members provided care until the arrival of an NWAS Emergency Ambulance, and in other cases our vehicles transported patients directly to hospital.

Most of the team members involved were stood down by midnight with a few team members staying on for administration tasks and restocking vehicles. Our Base/HQ was finally closed down at 00:50 on Tuesday morning.

During this period of activity freezing fog conditions prevailed throughout the areas we were operating in, with temperatures ranging from -6 degreeC to -2 degreeC.

This incident report covers incident numbers 89-96/2010.

Thanks must go to all the staff at NWAS (both in the ECC and on-the-road) for their help and understanding with the tasking allocated to the team tonight.