Incidents

We are tasked by the emergency services, including HM Coastguaard, Fire & Rescue, Police and the Ambulance Services. Our teams are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Below are the callouts that we have attended.

• Lydney 03-11-19

  Search Teams were deployed to Lydney around 11am on Sat 3 Nov. Land Search Teams from Beachley and Tewkesbury and a Water Search Team from SARA Sharpness were deployed to support Gloucestershire Constabulary, alongside Gloucestershire and Midlands Cave Rescue.
  Teams spent all day searching the areas around Lydney and Norchard railway stations for a missing vulnerable man. Sadly neither we nor the Police were able to locate the man, and the search was stood down at dusk.

  3rd Nov 2019

  3rd Nov 2019

• Symonds Yat 27-10-19

  Flood Rescue Teams from SARA Wyre Forest and Sharpness were asked to support Herefordshire and Worcestershire Fire & Rescue Service, as the River Wye was likely to flood. Initially deployed at 3pm to Hereford Fire Station to stand by, they then assisted the Fire Service with warning residents in Symonds Yat of the impending flood.

  27th Oct 2019

  27th Oct 2019

• Skenfrith Flooding 26-10-19

  SARA was deployed to Skenfrith on the evening of Saturday 26 October to support South Wales Fire and Rescue Service at a flood – the River Monnow had burst its banks.
  Teams deployed from Beachley and Newport. En route on a minor road, the Newport Team came across a car with two elderly occupants stuck in rising water. Having quickly put on our drysuits etc, they were able to rescue them and keep them warm until the Fire Service arrived.
  Once in Skenfrith, we worked with the Fire Service to check on a number of flooded houses near the Castle, as part of an operation to evacuate around 50 people including from the Bell Inn.
  Stood down from Skenfrith and on our way back to Newport, we came into an area of Monmouth which had flooded since we passed through earlier. We were then asked to help the Fire Service and HART Team Paramedics with checking a number of houses in which the residents had become marooned. We were stood down from this around 1am.

  26th Oct 2019

  26th Oct 2019

• Coleford 24-10-19

  Land Search Teams from Beachley and Tewkesbury were called out around 7pm, to assist Gloucestershire Constabulary with a missing person search in the Coleford area.
  As the teams were assembling, the Police located the missing person safe and well, elsewhere in the County.

  24th Oct 2019

  24th Oct 2019

• Winchcombe Search 23/24-10-19

  Land search teams were called out to the Winchcombe area around 5pm on Wed 23 Oct. Teams from SARA Tewkesbury, Beachley and Wyre Forest were joined by colleagues from Gloucestershire Cave Rescue Group and by SARDA South Wales search dog, tasked by Gloucestershire Constabulary with searching for a missing male. The teams searched late into the night and were eventually stood down around 0230, with nothing having been found.
  The search resumed later in morning (24 Oct), however, very sadly, as the SARA lead was being briefed by the Police a member of the public reported having found the body of a man, not far from the areas in which we had been searching. Some of the SARA volunteers were then able to help the Police to manage the scene.
  Our thoughts are with the family of the man concerned.

  23rd Oct 2019

  23rd Oct 2019

• Lydney Dock 22-10-19

  At 1400hrs we received an immediate tasking to assist with an incident at Lydney dock where there was a possibly of a casualty entering the water. SARA Sharpness crews immediately launched SARA Lifeboat 4 and made ready Lifeboat 2. Upon arrival on scene with SARA 4, we were stood down from the incident. SARA Beachley were also en route with a small boat (Rescue 5) when stood down.

  22nd Oct 2019

  22nd Oct 2019

• Newport 17-10-19

  SARA Newport was requested to launch by Coastguard to a vessel adrift by Newport Bridge.
  Tidal restrictions prevented launch so a mobile unit was dispatched to liaise on scene with Chepstow Coastguard personnel and the operations centre at Milford Haven. The boat was aground so the decision amongst all parties was to launch later to recover the vessel.
  We launched both boats that evening to assist the vessel that had became trapped underneath the structural column of Newport Bridge.
  The vessel was in imminent danger of capsizing as the lifeboat arrived on scene.
  The crews worked to free the vessel before towing it upstream to a safe location.

  17th Oct 2019

  17th Oct 2019

• Redbrook Casualty Evacuation 12-10-19

  We were called out at 1730 to assist with an injured man at Redbrook, in the Wye Valley. Gloucestershire Constabulary requested our support, and land teams from SARA Tewkesbury and Beachley deployed to the village.
  A man had injured his leg whilst walking in steep woods close to Redbrook in the late afternoon, and it took some time for his friends to be able to identify his location to the Police so that we could attend to him.
  Working with the Gloucestershire fire and rescue service and NHS paramedics, in the dark, we carried him down to the road on one of our Mountain Rescue stretchers, carefully back-roping it down the slope so that it was always secure. There he was transferred directly to a waiting ambulance.

  12th Oct 2019

  12th Oct 2019

• Ross-on-Wye 04-10-19

  The SARA Beachley inland boat team was called out at 3pm, tasked to Ross-on-Wye with supporting West Mercia Police on a missing person search, in an operation led by Longtown Mountain Rescue Team and with West Mercia Search & Rescue also deployed.
  We deployed SARA Rescue 5 on familiar ground, tasked with searching the River Wye from Kerne Bridge to Huntsham Bridge (a stretch we know well from the Wild Wye Swim).
  The team was stood down at dusk with nothing having been found.
  —
  Several days later the missing person was found elsewhere, safe and well

  4th Oct 2019

  4th Oct 2019

• Yacht aground at Hock Cliff 29-09-19

  Sharpness lifeboat were paged at 0830hrs by Milford Haven Coastguard to launch on an immediate shout to assist a sailing vessel aground with a damaged mast at Hock Cliff.
  SARA Lifeboat 2 ‘The Pride of Sharpness’ and SARA lifeboat 4 were launched to assist and when arrived on scene immediately rigged a line astern tow due to the heavy tide and wind pushing the vessel on shore.
  The casualty was then transferred to S4 for quick recovery as he had been in the water multiple times and was severely hypothermic. On arrival back on station we were met by ambulance and Chepstow Coastguard team who helped warm and stabilise the casualty.
  SARA 2 The Pride of Sharpness proceeded to Lydney dock to safety recover the vessel. Teams all stood down at 11:30am.

  29th Sep 2019

  29th Sep 2019