HM Coastguard Lytham & Fleetwood issue warnings as they share busy week of rescues

This Bank Holiday weekend, coastguards on the Fylde coast are sharing their busy week of rescues as they issued some stark warnings.

Yesterday, both HM Coastguard Fleetwood and HM Coustguard Lytham took to social media to outline some of the work they had been doing throughout the week to keep Fylde coast residents safe.

HM Coastguard Lytham particularly wanted to shine a light on an incident on Tuesday evening which drew “attention from the public”.

The service confirmed that at 10:08pm, they received a report of an incident happening at South Pier but on arrival, they found that “police had reached our casualty and had the incident in hand”.

Instead HM Coastguard Lytham was alerted to another incident nearby- an individual in the water by Gynn Sqaure- which also caught the attention of local residents.

The service said: “The lifeboat was already on the water, but with reports of a separate person in the water by Gynn Square, they were requested to standby while further details were obtained. Once it was confirmed that there was someone in the water requiring assistance, the lifeboat was just 1 minute away. They recovered a person floating in the water and brought them back to the lifeboat station where an ambulance was waiting.

“To ensure the safety of everyone, we set up a cordon with our vehicles, our tape and ourselves, while the boat and casualty were recovered, initial assessments carried out by paramedics and casualty transferred to the ambulance. A massive thank you and well done to all agencies involved for working together so smoothly .

“As is often the case, this job did draw attention from the public (natural when you have an ambulance, 2 Coastguard vehicles, a police presence, a lifeboat and tractor and various personnel around) including some people live streaming. Generally, everyone was very respectful of our cordon, moved down when requested and understood that we couldn't give details of the incident, so a big thank you for that .”

Off the back of Tuesday events however, HM Coastguard Lytham had a word of warning for residents.

The service wrote on social media: “One thing we would just like to highlight, is to what extent you choose to watch an incident happening, and to bear in mind who you have with you. In many cases, taskings that we deal with may be visually quite intense or traumatic to view. There may be some scenes unfolding that aren't appropriate for children to see, or could leave an imprint on an adult. It may feel more comfortable that instead of watching what's happening with the casualty, look at the vehicles or use it as a chance to discuss how to stay safe at the coast or the roles of different emergency services”

Simulatenously on Tuesday night, a separate incident took place at North Pier which may have averted the Lytham Coastgaurd if it wasn’t for Lancashire Police and RNLI Blackpool.

HM Coastguard Lytham explained: “While en route [to South Pier], there was radio chatter between ourselves, Holyhead MRCC as well as RNLI Blackpool with regards to something happening at North pier and whether we were intending to head up there. It was confirmed that there had been an incident at North pier but Lancashire Police and North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust had resolved that incident and we were to continue to South pier.”

HM Coastguard Fleetwood also had a busy week and they took to Facebook to share four of the most significant incidents one by one.

Kayak trouble

“Under an absolutely stunning sunset, we responded to some children who had got into difficulty on an inflatable kayak off the beach at Rossall. Please — the sea is not the place for inexperienced kayakers, and certainly not the place for inflatables, especially with an offshore breeze. We, along with Blackpool Lifeboat, were able to recover the kids safely to land, handing one into the care of waiting paramedics.”

Another Weever Fish sting

“We assisted with another Weever Fish sting (our 4th in less than a month). Staff at the Blackpool RNLI shop flagged us down to help a 9-year-old with a very painful sting.”

Helicopter Search

“A late job for us involved an alert to investigate an activated EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) — a portable satellite distress device used on boats to alert rescue teams during a life-threatening emergency at sea. These can sometimes be activated by accident, but we can never assume that, so the response is always treated seriously. With the help of Coastguard helicopter Rescue 336, we located the beacon on the marsh near the entrance to the Docks and confirmed there was no vessel in danger.”

Mud rescue

“We also had a mud job that saw us deploy 4 mud technicians onto the mud near Ramper Pot. We again required support from Fleetwood Inshore Lifeboat, along with both of our flank teams, Knott End and Lytham, as well as Lancashire Fire, Lancashire Police, and Ambulance. This was a very challenging rescue in difficult conditions, but thanks to excellent inter-team and inter-service working, it had a successful outcome.”

You can find out more about this mud rescue in our full story here.

Coastal Emergency? Call 999 and ask for the Coastguard.