Emergency exercise – Silloth, Cumbria

What started off as a simple walk in the sunshine on the Silloth prom turned out to be quite exciting, as we came upon a big emergency services exercise.

After the dismal cold and wet day of yesterday, it was fantastic to wake up this morning with the birds singing and the sun pouring in between the curtains.

We were not going to stay in the house today and we soon made sure the two leggers were going to take us somewhere.

Pulling into the car park, next to the lifeboat station, it seemed a little busy but we just thought that maybe a number of other dogs and their owners had thought like us and needed to get some sea air.

We then started our usual walk along the prom, up and down the sea steps and through all the puddles we could find.

To our left a small red and white boat chugged its way along the deep water channel towards us, billowing out the occasional puff of light black smoke.

With the sun beating down on our backs and the fresh salty air in our lungs, we reached the white wooden lighthouse, our usual turning around point, after about 40 minutes of gentle walking and much sniffing.

Taking a rest

By this point I was starting to feel a bit puffed so we all found a step to sit on and took a few minutes for a rest in the shade of the sea defences.

Charlie had a good root around in the seaweed and other debris to see what he could find, whilst mum picked up a few nice shells and unusual stones.

Fully rested we started back towards the car, this time on the grass as it is softer on my old paws. After all the recent rain the grass was quite dry and great to walk on.

The bushes that occasionally punctuated the landscape, provided  some very interesting sniffs, possibly of something mum calls a bunny rabbit.

I wonder if we caught one, would it taste of chicken?

Off to our right dad spots a very large bird, wings outstretched sunning itself. It had positioned itself way out on one of the fences that jut out from the beach and into the sea.

Mum thought it could be a Cormorant however was not sure. Do you know what it is? It seemed to have a long yellow beak and a wingspan over a metre wide.

Big black feathers glistened in the the sunlight and he seemed totally relaxed and chilled as seagulls and people passed by.

Emergency exercise

As we came closer to the car and the lifeboat station we were buzzed by a gigantic yellow wasp as it flew along the edge of the sea and the prom.

It was an enormous bug with a screeching whirly thing above and a strong smell.

Mum explained that it was a rescue helicopter and the smell was from the fuel that it burns to keep it in the air.

Looking across to the grassed area near to the lifeboat station, a smoke flare had been lit to show the wind direction and where it was going to land.

Quite a crowd of people had started to gather and they all held on to their hats and children as it touched down.

We took up position on the grass to see what would happen next.  After about 10 minutes it took to the skies only to fly out into the Solway.

Mum took out the binoculars and said that it appeared to park on a sandbank, whilst the crew got out and did some rescuing.

Whilst this bit of excitement was going on, the two RNLI boats were travelling this way and that, just in front of us.

The larger Silloth Atlantic 85, Elaine and Don Wilkinson vessel was quite impressive as it darted across the sea .

The big yellow helicopter returned back to shore after about 5 minutes.

Given the lack of vehicle sirens and urgency from some people we could see on the ground, it appeared that this was a big training exercise involving many of the emergency services.

This was unofficially confirmed when, lifted from one of the lifeboats, was a rescue doll, filled with straw.

This was carried back up the slipway and dumped to dry off in the late morning sunshine.

Checking later, before we started to write up about todays adventure, our suspicions were confirmed and indeed it was a training exercise.

The BBC reports that the exercise was a simulated air crash and involved all of the emergency services.

ITV Border had an interview with a fire officer who said the activities were part of “Exercise Sandside”.

One interesting thing we noticed whilst trying to find out more about the exercise ahead was that a similar training exercise, also involving a mock plane crash, was carried out in 2007 when 25 ‘casualties’ were rescued.

Video

Come back soon for some video from our day out