The team were called to assist two persons on Bodmin Moor who had called the police after one of them became stuck in marshland. A team controller sent a SARLOC message to confirm their position but whilst the team were mobilising, the casualties phoned back in to advise that they had managed to free themselves, and the team stood down.

The team were called out to search for a missing person from Treliske Hospital. Believed to be suffering with mental health issues and in need of further treatment, there was a significant concern for her welfare and a search of surrounding countryside was requested by the police who already had two police dogs deployed.

As members started immediate searches, news came through that the lady had been located by family members having walked the 8 miles home in poor weather. She was taken back to hospital.

A member of the public reported hearing shouts for help and then seeing what they believed may have been a person in distress in flood water near to the River Tamar. A swift multi agency response followed to search the river and establish if anyone was missing.

Although this part of Cornwall is covered by our colleagues at North Dartmoor team, we were able to offer three fully equipped advanced swiftwater rescue technicians and five water responders to assist with the searches. In the end, Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service completed the hasty searches, with CSRT and NDSRT remaining on standby pending a review at first light. With no new information overnight and thorough hasty searches already conducted, the teams stood down. A false alarm with good intent.

Late last night (or early this morning) the team were called-out to assist in the search for an 82-year-old male with dementia, missing from home in Mullion. Whilst a SARDA dog-handler worked through fields close to the male’s home address, a foot team tracked ahead to ‘hasty check’ likely routes. Just after 2am, as more team members were arriving from further afield, the gentleman was located by a HM Coastguard team in fields less than 300m from home. With Storm Charlotte battering this exposed bit of Cornwall, he was quickly wrapped up to protect him from further chilling before being taken by stretcher back to his home address.

Suffering from the effects of the cold driving rain, his temperature had dropped to just 34.2 degrees, but he was soon warmed back up to 36.8 so was safe to remain at home after being checked over by an ambulance crew.

Media coverage of the search is online here.

The team were called by Devon and Cornwall Police early evening to assist in the search for a 46-year-old female missing from the Penryn area. Through the evening, 19 team members searched large areas of woodland along the Glasney Valley and areas of open land along the Penryn River. Two teams from Falmouth Coastguard Rescue Team were also tasked to search the shoreline areas of the river whilst the Falmouth Inshore Lifeboat searched the river itself. The NPAS helicopter was also in attendance along with numerous other police resources.

Once the team had searched all of the high-priority areas along the valley we retasked members to search likely areas further afield, based on new intelligence. Once all of these areas were completed the team were stood down at 23:00 hrs.

The missing female was then located safe later that night by a police dog handler.

Today saw a continuation of the search for a 24-year-old missing male, following our search earlier in the week around Bodmin (more details here). The 24-year-old is still missing from home and following a series of sightings and further intelligence, the team were tasked to search large areas of woodland between Illogan and Portreath, and also the surrounding open fields. With our missing person being rather evasive, team members searched in ‘civvies’ rather than the usual red-and-black that people are familiar with. Searching through most of the daylight hours, the team stood down at dusk, with police investigations continuing.

Saturday morning the team were requested by Devon and Cornwall Police to join the search for a missing 24-year-old male along the Camel Trail near Dunmere Woods. With a lot of the open areas covered by Coastguard ‘924’ helicopter and NPAS helicopter, we deployed three foot teams to cover the more dense wooded areas alongside the Camel Trail. We also deployed a team Land Rover with accompanying police officers to search the numerous trails in Dunmere Wood and were preparing to deploy a water team to search the River Camel. Just as all of the high-priority woodland areas had been covered, the male was sighted well outside of our search areas and teams were stood-down.

Thomas Mugford is still missing though, now in the Camborne area, so please do be vigilant and report any possible sightings. He was last seen wearing khaki cargo shorts and a dark hoodie and any sightings should be reported to the police via 101.

Photos of Thomas are available on Cornwall Live: http://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/search-thomas-mugford-who-disappeared-696307

A male reported himself lost in poor weather on Rough Tor. With the previous incident still ongoing, a small hill party from the East Section in one team vehicle were readied for deployment. The male was given phone advice and was able to locate a farm house.

The team were put on stand-by after the car of a male missing from Hampshire was found in the Hayle area. As investigations continued, the team were then called out to search large areas of open ground, fields and ditches. Several foot teams searched through until just after midnight before being stood down for the night.

Teams then returned the next day and in deteriorating Cornish mizzle continued to expand the search, also recovering areas only covered in darkness the previous night. With all high- and medium-priority areas covered and darkness setting in, the search was again suspended and investigations continued.

Thankfully, and quite remarkably, the missing male then returned home to Hampshire on Monday morning.

Just after midday the team were contacted by Devon and Cornwall Police to assist in the rescue of a 50-year-old walker who had fallen through and 15m down into a mine near Cot Valley, St Just. The walker had sustained significant injuries, landing on a narrow ledge inside a constriction in the mine.

The first team members who arrived provided technical advice and support whilst Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service set up an initial rigging system to allow a paramedic to give pain relief and insulation from the cold, and once the casualty was stabilised, further CSRT mine rescue team members set up a high-directional system and created closer anchor points inside the mine itself. Once set up, team members and a firefighter then packaged the casualty in a SKED (confined space stretcher) and with a team member acting as a stretcher attendant the operation began to haul them out of the mine. Upon reaching a constriction in the mine, the stretcher attendant had to transfer to a separate rope system, transferring back onto the stretcher system once this had been cleared. Further team members ran the hoisting system from the top of the mine, also running a deviation to prevent any rope rub in the difficult evacuation.

Once the casualty and attendant were safely up onto the drive of the mine, the fire service were able to transfer the injured male to a scoop stretcher to be moved up to the surface. From there HM Coastguard continued the evacuation and Coastguard Rescue 924 winched him to hospital. The multi-agency rescue operation took over five hours and was attended by six Mines Rescue members and six Surface members.

Early evening, team search managers were requested to advise the police in the ongoing search for a missing 40-year-old despondent female in the Redruth area. After discussing the various search options available, west section members were called out to search small areas of woodland near Scorrier, with east section members also put on stand-by to assist. As the first team members were en route to the RV the missing female was located safe and well and the team were stood down.

Early morning the team were called-out to search for a despondent 25-year-old male, missing in the Penryn area since late evening. With Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service searching the banks of the Penryn River and Coastguard helicopter Rescue 924 on scene, the team were tasked to search areas of open ground along the river. As the first team members were arriving at the RV the missing male returned home and all personnel were stood down.

A ten year old female was reported missing on the expansive sand dunes at Perranporth. Police and coastguard resources were already en route, and CSRT was requested to assist with the search as well.

As the team were arranging the call out, the girl returned to her holiday caravan safe and well.

The team were put on standby at the weekend to search for a 71-year-old female with dementia, missing since early evening in the St Columb Minor area. As further details were being taken and a search plan formulated, the elderly lady was found safe and well by her family, so team members were stood down.

In typical Cornish weather of sunshine and torrential rain, the team were called to assist in the search for a missing 55-year-old male in the Lanhydrock area. As team members were gathering at the RV ready to deploy, the missing male was sadly found deceased by a member of public. The team remained at the RV to assist in recovering his body from woodland back up to the road. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family at this difficult time.