Barrow Lifeboat Called to Assist Jet-Skiers
Barrow RNLI’s volunteer crew launched their Inshore Lifeboat yesterday evening to go to the aid of two jet-skiers in difficulty off Piel Island.
The request for assistance was received from HM Coastguard in Holyhead at 5.43pm on Saturday evening. The Coastguard had been informed that two jet-skiers were in the water in between Roa and Piel Islands after their craft had overturned.
The crew was paged and the inshore lifeboat, Raymond and Dorothy Billingham, was launched at 6.00pm with Saul Tomlin at the helm and crew Fraser Livesey and Phil Jackson. The lifeboat made the short passage across to Piel Island where the casualties had been helped ashore and taken to the Island’s pub. The lifeboat crew carried out an assessment of the casualties and requested that an ambulance be called to the lifeboat station at Roa Island. The casualties had been in the water for some time, and it was considered that one of them was, potentially, at risk of secondary drowning.
The lifeboat crew took the casualties across Walney Channel to the lifeboat station where they were transferred into the care of the ambulance crew.
The lifeboat was rehoused at 7.13pm and made ready for the next launch.
The weather and visibility at the time of the incident was good. The wind was from the north-west, Force 3 – 4. The high tide had not long passed at 4.41pm with a height of 7.9 metres.
Press Officer for Barrow Lifeboat, Chris Couter, commented: ‘We would like to thank the members of the public that raised the alarm and also Aaron, Landlord of the Ship Inn on Piel Island, for assisting with the care of the casualties. As always, we thank our fantastic volunteers for their response to this incident.’
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The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.
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