At 17.34hrs this evening we were paged by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service to mobilise as part of their PDA (Pre Determined Attendance) for structures and vertical line rescue, to the report of two children stuck at the top of a crane in Leigh.

With team members already on route to our vehicle garage locations based upon the initial page from GMFRS, a full team member call out page was then made at 17.41hrs.

GMFRS were also mobilising to this incident alongside NWAS (Greater Manchester Area) and GMP.

At circa 17.45hrs our first team member (Michael O’Brien) arrived on scene closely followed at 17.52hrs by team members Louise Jorgensen and George Pike.

It was quickly established that the responding GMFRS resources had managed to rescue the two children involved, a 13 year old boy and a 12 year old girl, both from Leigh, from their predicament. (the pair had been frightened by their ordeal and were very cold).

At 17.56hrs a full team ’Stand down’ message was paged, by which time in addition to our three members already on scene, we had two of our Landrover Mountain Rescue Landrovers on route, and a total of 24x team members stood down on route.

GMFRS resources allocated to this multi agency response incident included 2x Pump Appliances from Leigh Fire Sation, 1x Pump Appliance from Bolton Central Fire Station and 1x Hydraulic Platform Appliance from Leigh Fire Station.

NWAS (Manchester) despatched a Rapid Response Vehicle, with GMP Officers also in attendance.