Another early morning start for the twenty four members attending today, and another intensive day training, with thanks again to Alistair Greenough, Mark Scott, Dave McClure and Pete McKale for their excellent instruction.

Towards the middle of the afternoon with all members arranged in small groups and just about to commence a series of mini practical exercises to test their knowledge gained so far to date on this years course, we received news of a developing search taking place in the Rivington area for a missing Chorley man, whose whereabouts were giving cause for concern.

Whilst our Team Leader and Training Officer liaised with the Lancashire Constabulary Control Room, all the members present at our base quickly packed away all the kit in use on our Casualty Care course and made ready everything in anticipation of a search being required.

The team then went to standby at our Base / HQ whilst the Police gained more information regards the missing person.

Whilst still on standby at our base we received the sad news from the Police that a man’s body had been found in the Healey Nab area, overlooking Chorley, this subsequently turning out to be the missing man.

We therefore stood down, and unpacked our Catering Trailer, took back our Control Trailer to our Bolton Fire Station garage premises, and recommenced the Casualty Care Course – ’service as usual’.

We understand the man’s body was recovered later this same day by our colleagues in Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team (This standby does not feature in our Incident figures, as we remained at base on standby only and no extra personal were called other than those in attendance on the course).

This course will continue into our Wednesday night training schedule, with all members participating ultimately taking a written examination, a practical test (trauma and medical scenerios) and an oral examination.

Hopefully we will maintain the team’s 100% pass rate obtained on all previous courses.