Skerries Coast Guard

This evening, the Skerries Coast Guard team were paged to investigate reports of an abandoned boat trailer at the South Strand, Skerries. Concerned members of the public had contacted the Coast Guard’s rescue centre to report that the trailer was now submerged by the incoming tide, near an area known locally as “the Brook”. It appeared that the trailer had been used to launch a small boat earlier in the day, that had failed to return.

The Skerries Coast Guard team arrived on scene and immediately began to investigate how the trailer had come to be on the beach. The team spoke to members of the public on scene and also conducted extensive door to door enquiries. The Skerries team also conducted an on the water search North of the harbour. The boat and its owner were quickly traced off the harbour. The Skerries Coast Guard team briefed the owner on the situation and requested the trailer be returned to a safe location after launching their boat.

Incident #17 of 2010

At 18:00 this evening, the volunteers of Skerries Coast Guard were tasked to investigate a report of distress flares North of Balbriggan harbour. The Coast Guard’s rescue coordination centre was contacted by a member of the public who had observed the flare in the Balbriggan skyline.

The Skerries Coast Guard team invesitaged and following extensive searches of the coastline, nothing further was noted. No further aciton was required and the team were stood down.

Incident # 10 of 2010

Later that night, at 23:10 the Skerries team were again tasked to investigate reports of multiple flares further North near Gormonstown. The Skerries team observed the flares and it was apparent that these were not marine distress flares. The Coast Guard contacted the army base at Gormonston and established that an army exercise was underway involving the use of illumination flares. No further action was required.

Incident # 11 of 2010

This evening, the volunteers of Skerries Coast Guard took part in routine Search and Rescue training at Red Island, Skerries. This centered on the scenario of the team being tasked to assist a person in difficulty in the water. The exercise was based at the Springers public bathing area on Red Island. Upon arriving at the scene, the volunteers’ immediate task was to locate the person in the water and to recover them from the water using a rescue throwline.

SCG volunteers performing CPR on resus training dummy

Once the casualty was successfully assisted to the shoreline, the exercise scenario then progressed to the casualty suddenly developing cardiac arrest. The Skerries Coast Guard volunteers immediately began Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). CPR is an important first aid skill used to keep a casualty’s vital organs alive immediately after a heart attack or another event, such as drowning, that can cause a person to stop breathing. The volunteers maintained constant CPR for over 20 minutes, the average expected time for additional medical resources to arrive on scene.

The training was both very realistic and beneficial for all the Coast Guard team members involved. Skerries Coast Guard would like to thank the members of the public who were in the Red Island area during the exercise for their cooperation.

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At daybreak this morning, the members of Skerries Coast Guard took part in operations training with the Dublin Coast Guard helicopter, EI-RCG. The landing site selected was at Red Island, Skerries. Local Gardai also took part in the exercise.

More photos are available in our photo gallery

The Skerries Coast Guard team were at Ardgillan Park, Balbriggan today for intensive land search training.

The day kicked off with an early morning woodland search. This was centered on the scenario of a person reported missing in the area since the previous night. Weather conditions at the scene were challenging, bitterly cold sub zero conditions prevailed, with freezing fog hampering visibility. This proved a useful test of the team’s personal all weather kit.

The first search was successfully completed. The casualty was located, treated and evacuated from the scene.

The second phase of the search training involved a mixed grassland and marsh search for a number of objects including discarded pyrotechnics and an EPIRB.

Overall, the training day was a great success for the Skerries team and provided a useful opportunity to test out our response to real life search and rescue situations.

Skerries Coast Guard wish to thank the staff of Ardgillan Park for the use of the ground for this training.

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