An organisation that started its emergency support out of a caravan is marking 30 years of rescues.
Exmoor Search and Rescue Team (ESRT) has 30 operational team members, as well as trainees and supporters who all take on this volunteering in addition to their wide range of day jobs.
ESRT started as a group of volunteers in 1992 with a caravan as a control vehicle kept on someone’s drive and very little else, except a will to help the police in searching for missing and vulnerable people and returning them to a place of safety. This core aim still stands, but the equipment and technology have certainly moved on apace in 30 years.
The team now sports four bespoke vehicles all with different and vital capabilities, based at the rescue centre in South Molton and the fire station in Taunton. It has a full water capability, a motorboat and four drones, including one with thermal imagery. The dedicated volunteers train regularly and hard to maintain the vast skill sets necessary to offer this comprehensive service to both Avon and Somerset and Devon and Cornwall police. Its patch extends from Bridgwater to Yeovil, and Tiverton to Bude.
The demands on the team’s time and expertise have likewise grown exponentially. Search Manager and longest-serving team member of 25 years, Phil Sparks, says: 'When I first joined the team, we would get around 10 callouts a year, largely for missing people, while in the past year we have had 54 callouts. We still deal with missing people most of the time, but in addition have had ambulance assists to injured walkers and riders, evacuations for a gas leak, welfare checks across the moor during storm Eunice, and unfortunately body recoveries.'
Chair Caroline Young says: 'The 30th year has been a really busy year for the team, on top of our day-to-day team operations, running the charity and fundraising, we have wanted to mark the team’s birthday in style. We have had a whole range of events throughout our 30th year, in addition to setting ourselves the challenging target to raise £30,000 for 30 years. It costs around £25,000 a year to run the team so we wanted to push ourselves this year.'
People have been doing all sorts of challenges to mark the occasion, running the 30 miles of the Exmoor Perambulation in May, completing the 30 miles Ham and Lyme ultra-marathon in June, cycling 30km for 30 days before work and more.
She adds: 'We’re still madly fundraising so if anyone would like to join in setting themselves a challenge and fun raise on our behalf, please go to our gofund me page.'
All this hard work should hopefully give the team a sustainable future to serve our communities for at least another 30 years.
