The police contacted the team to search areas of woodland and open ground in and around the town centre area of St Austell for a missing 40 year old male with depression after concerns were raised for his welfare.

A full team call out was initiated, but stood down again soon after before team members had arrived at the RVP. The male had been located by police outside of the search area.

The team’s west section were called out by the police in the early hours following reports from members of public of an unknown elderly male looking confused and lost in Illogan. Ten team members were tasked to search tracks, paths and areas of the Tolgus Valley and with all possible routes covered from 2am until 4am the team were stood down pending further information.

With the previous days weather still covering the rural roads with snow and now ice, the police requested the assistance of the team Land Rover ambulance to access an incident in Blisland on Bodmin Moor. Some roads now had 2-3 foot snowdrifts as abandoned vehicles had meant snow ploughs and gritters could not get through.

The task was completed at 14:10 hours.

No further information is available about this incident.

A 71 year old female took a fall down a snowy bank after having to abandon her car when trying to get out of the village. The steep snow and ice covered roads made the village inaccessible to anything other than a four wheel drive vehicle. The team Land Rover with two crew including a casualty carer was sent to help her at the request of ambulance control, negotiating some treacherous driving conditions and drifting snow.

Having been assessed by a team medic as having a broken left ankle, combined with existing medical conditions, she was conveyed to Treliske Hospital by the team where she was treated for her injuries.

Due to the road conditions, the entire incident took six and a half hours.

With snow hitting much of North Cornwall, South Western Ambulance Service Trust requested the team to assist one of their response vehicles in Delabole with a person with breathing difficulties. With the roads being covered in snow and ice, we deployed our Land Rover ambulance from Bodmin to assist with extra oxygen supplies and provide transport to the casualty.

Areas of East Cornwall experienced a sudden snow storm which seriously affected the higher routes over Bodmin Moor. This caused several lorries to jackknife or come to a stop on the steeper hills, causing hundreds of motorists to be stuck in their vehicles for long periods of time. Journeys which normally took 30 minutes were taking over 9 hours to complete, which caused a number of welfare issues within the tailbacks.

The team deployed its fleet of four wheel drive ambulances at the request of the police to check on motorists and provide general assistance. There were four specific taskings during this incident along the A30 which were to look for specific vehicles in the gridlock which had various concerns or medical conditions reported to the police control room. One of these concerns was handed directly on to the ambulance service having been located and assessed by the team.

The team eventually stood down at 0250 hours once both lanes of the A30 were moving again, returning to base by 0330 hours.

Members of the east section were placed on stand by for a search in the Fowey area after a 58 year old male with a history of health issues did not return home and had been missing all night.

The male was found cold in a field by police and evacuated prior to a full team call out.

Not long after team members were back home from the safety cover on Brown Willy, we were called out on our first real job of 2019 after two aggressive dogs on leads were reported persistently barking at the top of a mine shaft near Porthtowan. There was sufficient reason to believe their owner of the dogs might have been missing, so the team were tasked to cover adjacent areas of the valley and also to investigate the shaft in question. As priority areas were covered and Police investigations continued it became apparent that these were most likely lost dogs, so resources were stood down.

It later transpired that the dogs had escaped from a local farm across the valley, but it’s always best to err on the side of caution.

A firm fixture in our annual calendar is the Brown Willy Run, where 473 runners took on seven miles of mud from Jamaica Inn to the top of Brown Willy and back. For once the weather was dry!

The team dealt with two ankle injuries and we wish them both a quick recovery.

Team members were deployed to support Devon and Cornwall Police in the search for a missing female in the Coverack area. Woodland and open field systems were searched by our teams through the morning and early afternoon.

After a thorough search of these areas the team were stood down.

The team were contacted to assistance in locating six hounds missing in the St Allen area. The owners had searched for two days themselves, including drafting in drones and off-road vehicles, the owners asked us to look at the possibility that the dogs had fallen down one of several mine shafts in the area. Incredibly, shining torches down the first shaft we checked revealed several pairs of eyes looking back up at us. Further team members and equipment were brought in and we were able to get a team member down to the dogs to check on their welfare, finding four alive and well, one obviously injured and another sadly deceased. Without any specialist animal-handling equipment, reluctant dogs and the risk of triggering a partial collapse of the top of the shaft (not to mention the rapidly-deteriorating weather) we took the difficult decision to leave the dogs in situ and return in the morning to complete the rescue with the assistance of Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service.

During the morning the team were put on stand-by to assist the Police in the search for a missing male from the Redruth area. Initial enquiries indicated that he may have been heading towards Illogan, so a search plan was developed to cover high-priority areas in that direction. With the weather forecast to deteriorate through the day, 26 team members were deployed into five search teams, covering large areas of Illogan Woods and Nance Woods and tracks leading to them.

Foot teams searched for four hours in torrential rain and wind and were eventually stood-down having covered the thick woodland as thoroughly as possible. Enquiries are still continuing and our thoughts are with the family and friends of the young male.

Search & Rescue team members from East Cornwall deployed to Bush near Bude to assist and support our colleagues from North Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team in the search for a missing 92 year old male.

After two hours of searching he was located and treated by qualified members of the North Dartmoor Team whilst they awaited the doctor and paramedic.

We send him our very best wishes for a quick recovery. Our two foot teams and vehicle then returned back to our ‘patch’ following a good nights work.

Just after midnight the team were contacted to support Devon & Cornwall Police in the search for a missing 50 year old female in the Camborne area. Despite being missing from home in an urban area, initial searches had drawn a blank and as concerns grew for her safety the team were tasked to search local areas of parkland and open fields.

Just before 2am the lady was located by Police in an open field 2km from home and team medics were able respond quickly and provide a medical assessment. Once warmed up, there was still some concern for her welfare, so with an ambulance delayed, the lady was conveyed to Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske) in a team vehicle for further treatment.

Thirty team members from the two sections converged on Par to search for an elderly missing male believed to be suffering with dementia. Extensive searches including foot teams, the police helicopter and a SARDA search dog scoured the local area until around 1830 hours when it was confirmed that he had been located in a confused state by a family friend well outside of the search area.

He was returned home where police met with him. The team was extremely grateful for the support shown by the residents of Par and the local chip shop!