Great Yarmouth and Gorleston RNLI joint mass casualty training exercise

Working together they staged a simulated rescue using trained lifeguards posing as casualties in the water who had been caught in a fictitious rip current. Rip currents are a major cause of accidental drowning. They are a hazard across many beaches in the UK and Ireland and so it is important to be aware of them.

As one team, Great Yarmouth and Gorleston RNLI lifeguards and lifeboat crew performed a mass casualty rescue scenario, practising and refining the best and quickest techniques to transfer casualties from rescue boards and rescue tubes in the sea to different lifeboats including the Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat (ILB) John Rowntree, the Trent class all-weather lifeboat (ALB) Samarbeta and ALB daughter craft.

Ted Morgan, RNLI Lead Lifeguard Supervisor, said: ‘Rip currents occur when the tide comes in. They are fast and happen so quickly that it is easy to get caught in them.'

Supervisor Ted Morgan, Seasonal Lifeguard Supervisor Arna Tolliday and Volunteer Coxswain Rod Wells, gave the charity’s lifeguards and lifeboat crew a chance to practice and perfect their collaborative rescue skills for incidents involving people being pulled out to sea.

Rod Wells, RNLI Mechanic and volunteer Coxswain, said: ‘The multi-casualty training scenario offered the lifeguards a valuable insight and demonstration of the capabilities of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Lifeboat Station.’

The training exercise also explored casualty care and the best approaches to transferring and treating casualties with certain injuries such as spinal damage.

Arna Tolliday, RNLI Seasonal Lifeguard Supervisor, said: ‘The joint lifeguard and lifeboat training session was a success. Our teams worked well together to practice mass rescue scenarios, casualty care and radio communications.

‘The exercise was a great opportunity for new and returning lifeguards to work alongside our fellow RNLI lifeboat crew and practice some of the important skills required to save lives at sea.

‘Hopefully this will lead to future training exercises where we can work on perfecting more skills together as one crew.’

The charity’s lifeguards pride themselves in being as fit and prepared as possible to keep beach users safe.

You can see Great Yarmouth and Gorleston RNLI lifeboat crew and lifeguards working together at Gorleston Beach on Thursday 17 August at 7pm during a sand hole collapse joint training exercise with local emergency services.

For beach safety information and tips, please visit: https://rnli.org/safety/beach-safety.

Notes to editors

Here is a link to a video demonstrating the Float to Live technique: https://rnli.org/find-my-nearest/lifeboat-stations/great-yarmouth-and-gorleston-lifeboat-station

For further information please see: www.rnli.org/safety/float 

RNLI media contacts

For more information, please contact Toni Carr, RNLI Media Engagement Placement on 07890 402106 or [email protected] or Clare Hopps, Regional Media Officer on 07824 518641 or [email protected] or contact the RNLI Press Office on 01202 336789.