Multi-agency teamwork in Rhyl mud extraction rescue
Local Coastguard volunteers; RNLI volunteers; and ambulance ensure two people recovered safely
The UK coastguard at Holyhead received a 999 call regarding two people and a small dog, trapped in the mud up to their waists, to the East of the revetment wall marking Rhyl harbour entrance. The Coastguard initially called out Rhyl and Flint mud-rescue Coastguard teams to perform a rescue by mud sled and wading team. The tide was rapidly coming in and threatened to overcome the people in the mud. One person was found by the coastguards to be up to their knees, but the other was up to their waist and unable to move. The coastguard officer on scene asked for the RNLI inshore lifeboat to stand by nearby. The crew mustered and the inshore lifeboat was taken on the beach to assist the coastguards with the recovery.
The coastguard team successfully freed the two people, just as the tide came up to them, and managed to pull the two back to hard sand. As the people had been in the mud for nearly 30 minutes, the Coastguard-in-charge on scene asked the lifeboat crew to ferry the two people back up the beach to the lifeboat station, where an ambulance crew checked them over. Both persons were shaken up after their ordeal, but recovered once they were in the warmth of the lifeboat station.
Photos by Paul Frost, press officer, Rhyl RNLI
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The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.
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