Lytham St Annes RNLI lifeboat volunteers save three people from the sea
Two incidents over six days for the charity’s inshore lifeboat.
The first incident occurred shortly after 9.30pm on Tuesday 12 July when shouts for help were heard from the sea off North Beach opposite Todmorden Road. The Volunteer Lifeboat Crew were paged and set off by road with the ILB to access the beach at the All-weather Lifeboat (ALB) House slipway on South Promenade. Driving on to North Beach, the boat, with Helm Vinny Pedley in command, was launched into the water in the area the shouts had been heard from. A quick search found two men in the water after their kayaks had sunk about an hour earlier. They were brought into the Lifeboat and Casualty Care (First Aid) was performed on the rescued men, one of who needed oxygen to be administered.
Due to the condition of the casualties after their prolonged time in the water, the ILB was immediately taken ashore, re-carriaged and driven up to the Lytham St Annes Coastguard Station where paramedics were waiting to take over the men’s care and then take them to hospital to be checked over and recover from their ordeal. The ILB was then re-launched to search for the men’s kayaks to prevent future false call outs. Lytham St Annes and Fleetwood Coastguard mobile units and a Coastguard Helicopter were also involved in the search but nothing was found.
The search was called off at 11.50pm and the ILB was returned to the ALB House to be washed off and checked over before leaving by road to return to her own boathouse to be re-fuelled, the Volunteers finally leaving for home at 12.40am (13th).
Volunteer Helm Vinny Pedley later said, “The men were lucky to have been heard from the shore as otherwise nobody would have missed them for some time. With hypothermia setting in, one man probably had little more than 10 minutes left before the situation became very critical, and his mate refused to leave him to save himself.”
The following Monday (18th) the Sea Charity’s ILB was launched from Church Scar off Seafield Road when a swimmer was seen to be in difficulty and being taken down river by the ebb tide. With Volunteer Helm Rob Ansell in command, the ILB found the man and rescued him in a state of collapse. Again, as in the previous rescue, Casualty Care and Oxygen had to be administered due to the man’s deteriorating condition. The ILB returned to Church Scar to be re-carriaged and drawn up the beach to Seafield Road where Police and Coastguards were waiting. The man was kept in the relative shelter aboard the Inshore Lifeboat and Casualty Care continued until an Ambulance crew arrived on scene to take over his care and transport him to hospital.
A spokesman for the Sea Charity said, “All three men involved in the two incidents had lucky escapes. Although the air temperature can be hot in summer, the sea temperature is still cold at this time of year and hypothermia can be the biggest danger to all who are in the sea for any length of time”.
Key facts about the RNLI
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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