At 15.40 today Howth Coast Guard were tasked to a report from a member of the public that two people were in trouble on the cliffs. The team assembled quickly and went to the scene and searched for the casualties. Members of the public pointed the team to the location above Whitewaterbrook just north of the Baily lighthouse. The Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 was also tasked and was leaving Dublin airport. When the team arrived they found two young men had tried to climb up the cliff from the beach and were now stuck half way in a precarious position they could not get out of. Howth set up a cliff recovery and sent a rescue climber down to the casualties. The climber reached the first casualty and secured him as the helicopter was arriving on scene. The helicopter winch man was lowered to the second casualty and winched him up to the helicopter. The helicopter returned to the scene and recovered the first casualty from the cliff. Both were lowered to the Coast Guard team on the cliff top. No injuries were suffered by the men although one of them had slipped down the rocks before the CG team were on scene.
The rescue was conducted in front of many members of the public who gathered on the cliff opposite the scene to watch the events unfold.
Incident 05/08
Check out here for some bystander pictures of the rescue.
Some good pictures here also from Philip. Hey! we’re famous
Well done lads, good result !!!
Do you’s happen to find that the Howth Market on sunday hampens your response i was down on the harbour today and the traffic was meham trying to get out i saw yous got out quick enough with your siren and lights but if an ambulance was trying to get up the harbour or out this could cause a delay… hopefully something can be done to ensure you’s and the DFB etc … can get in and out of the harbour asap in an emergency if required. (Especially on a sunday !!!! as the howth market draws such a big crowd) and there are parked cars everywhere….. (But then again as they say it takes a tragedy to change something…Hopefully it wont come to this)
Keep up the good work.
Dave
Left by Dave on February 17th, 2008
Thanks Dave. Yes Howth traffic is mad at the moment. Any day when the weather is good causes a huge amount of traffic to head to Howth and it’s not helped by all the roadworks going on. So far we have been lucky as alot of our members live in the immediate area so response times have not been too bad. All the volunteers on a callout respond to the station in their own cars and only then can use the CG bluelight vehicles, so we are at the mercy of the traffic jams. Today it was taking up to half an hour to get out of the harbour area and many of the unit have to travel to the scene in their own cars as we don’t have bluelight transport for all the unit.
Left by Area Officer on February 17th, 2008
Hey guys sounds like a good shout! Well done!
Funny you should mention the traffic we (the lifeboat crew) have exactly the same problem… We too are at the mercy of the traffic, and the roadworks…
Maybe a sit-down and a chat with the “powers-that-be” might be a good idea… as I think its fairly obvious with all the roadworks and developments going on around the town no thought at all has been given to emergency access to the village.
I agree with Dave… it nomally takes a tragedy to force change in this kind of situation… So lets hope something can be done before there is a tragedy!
Well done again guys!
Dave H
Left by Dave H on February 18th, 2008
Speaking with Guards at a rescue a year ago and they said that they had to send a fire engine around the back of the village church as double yellow line parked cars had narrowed the main road too much for it to get up the hill.
Left by admin on February 18th, 2008