Follow us on FacebookTeam members have been refreshing their skills in different aspects of First Aid and a variety of Cave Rescue techniques both above and below ground. Some of our activities are listed below.
Land Search Training, December 6th
We joined colleagues in the Severn Area Rescue Association (SARA)for a Saturday morning training exercise at Nimmings Wood, Stourbridge. This is a site that has been used for evening training sessions in the past and it made a change to be able to see the trees and the wood!
Land Search Training, November 23rd
Eight team members made the trip down to the Gloucestershire Cave Rescue Group (GCRG) depot in the Forest of Dean for a cross-station land search training session organised by the Severn Area Rescue Association (SARA). Five ‘stands’ were organised covering body recovery, assembling the wheeled stretcher and vacuum mattress, hasty search techniques, woodland searching, and working with helicopters.
The first four ‘stands’ were really refreshers, however the latter was the most dramatic. After a classroom session on how to check helicopter landing areas, various techniques for approaching helicopters were covered. The group then adjourned to the depot yard where the workshop leader Richard demonstrated a range of methods for signalling to helicopters. These ended with a number of smoke flares being let off to help indicate landing areas and wind direction.
Snailbeach Rescue Practice, November 19th
We were asked by the Shropshire Mines Trust's Mine Manager to test the process for evacuating people from one of the mine levels used for tours by members of the public.
The team were deployed to erect our Larkin frame over the shaft cap up the hill from the entrance. Members, Vicky Robinson and Jonathan Wilkes volunteered to be lowered down the shaft to the chamber, taking the stretcher and first aid kit with them.
Underground, one of the visitors - a certain ‘Ruth Lee’ - had tripped over and needed evacuating in a stretcher. She was packaged in the stretcher and was the first person to be hauled up the shaft, followed by other members of the trapped 'party'.
Once we had the rigging set-up it was a quick process to evacuate each person. We managed to evacuate one stretcher and two people in under 2 hours. So, a party of nine visitors could be brought out quite quickly - although it would take us some time to ferry the kit to site and for team members to arrive.
On this occasion it probably took us longer to clean the kit than it took us to do the exercise!
Land Search Training, October 12th
A very misty and cool Sunday saw members of MCRO and Gloucestershire Cave Rescue Group (GCRG) join colleagues in the Severn Area Rescue Association (SARA) for a series of informative training exercises and workshops on Cleeve Hill, Gloucestershire.
Land Search Training, May 18th
On a lovely sunny Sunday several Land Search trained team members joined colleagues in the Severn Area Rescue Association (SARA) for a series of training exercises and workshops based on and around the beautiful Bromesberrow Estate near Ledbury. The various exercises included a dense woodland search for a missing person, First aid and recovery of a seriously injured mountain biker, and a water margin workshop. The day was rounded off with a presentation of a statue to Dr John Dutton as he stepped back from being a Search Controller for Severn Area Rescue Association - a role he has held for many years. We wish him all the best for his 'quiet life'.
Evening Training, 11th April
During this Friday evening training session team members refreshed their skills in rigging the Larkin Frame on the grass alongside the Fire Station yard.
This item of kit is useful for rescues involving cliff edges and shafts that can easily be reached. Mounting holes for the small version have been added to a couple of shaft caps in South Shropshire to assist in rescue or evacuations from those sites.
Evening Rescue Training, Wookey Hole, 27th January
Members of MCRO were invited by Mendip Cave Rescue to attend a rigging practice that was being held within Wookey Hole. The initial aim being to try to rig a traverse across a chamber and get a casualty from one end to the other using their new stretcher – a Petzl Nest. This seems a great piece of kit, it has an integral casualty harness and foot tapes and is used very extensively within Europe. Over the course of the next few hours, multiple iterations of belaying methods were tried, some were more successful than others. Feedback from the willing casualty in the stretcher was that it was comfotable and felt secure, but the hauling team could have been a little more consistent – the jerkiness was not ideal and they were glad that they hadn't just had a meal!
Winter Training Day, 12th January, 2025
Once again our first training session of 2025 took place in the excellent facilities at Arco Professional Safety Services training centre in Eccleshall. See the Training page for a little more detail.
The morning sessions included sessions on Kit inspection with some scary rope and harness samples, plus a First Aid refresher and some short talks about recent underground rescues.
After lunch the 'underground' rescue involved the recovery of a casualty from the ARCO 'cave' to the top of their tower, followed by a lower from there to the ground and a stretcher carry through the building to the first floor training room.
