Yahoo News North Tyneside search and rescue team hits 100 incidents for 2024 as RNLI lifeguard provision ends
A North Tyneside search and rescue team hit 100 incidents for 2024 just days before the end of summer.
Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade is predicting that this year will be one of the busiest years it has faced with four months still to go, on the day that the RNLI beach lifeguard provision ended for the summer. TVLB attended 18 incidents in August, with the 16th on August 29 the charity's 100th this year.
It is the 5th earliest point in the year that the team have reached 100 incidents, with the current total standing at 102. Callouts have included everything from attempting to locate a red distress flare, which was later deemed to have been misused; supporting people who had fallen ill on the beach, assisting with broken down vessels in the river Tyne, and searching for missing people.
One of the most notable include a multi-agency operation with Northumbria Police and the North East Ambulance Service, where two casualties were rescued from the sea just north of Cullercoats Bay on August 5. Despite the high amount of incidents, the charity described the last month as "positive".
A spokesperson for TVLB said: "Although we’ve had a high volume of calls, the positive element has been that most incidents have been quickly resolved – and we’ve also had a high number of false alarms with good intent where members of the public have acted cautiously and contacted the Coastguard with concerns they had for people's safety."
The positivity wasn't just limited to callouts, as TVLB's Watch House Museum won a TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice award for the second year in a row at the beginning of the month, putting it among the top 10% of listings around the world on the travel aggregator. Dave Graham, assistant watchhouse director, said: "Once again, the Watch House Museum has been honoured to receive this award and be included in the exclusive 10% club of Travelers Choice Favourites for 2024.
"This award recognises the hard work done by our core Watch House team, our newly recruited Watch House volunteers and Friends of the TVLB in making a visit to the museum an interactive experience. I must also thank all of our visitors for their feedback which has made this award possible and all the schools and societies who have visited the watchhouse for guided tours by the two Daves during the 12-month period as a museum is no good without its visitors and their feedback".
Lastly, TVLB also offered their thanks to the RNLI beach lifeguards who have been present throughout the summer at beaches in Whitley Bay, Cullercoats, Tynemouth, South Shields, Seaburn and Sunderland. They said: "We’d like to thank the Lifeguards for their hard work across the past four months – they serve a vital role in preventing incidents occurring and offering a fast response when things do go wrong."
