On Saturday the rescue team held a 6-hour search and rescue exercise based at Postbridge in central Dartmoor. Also taking part were representatives from our sister teams Dartmoor Search and Rescue Tavistock, Dartmoor Search and Rescue Plymouth and North Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team. We also had two Mountain Rescue search dogs. Two Police Search Advisors and an Army representative from 10 Tors also attended to better understand what we do. It was typical Dartmoor weather – fog, rain and wind on the higher tops all of which made for challenging conditions on the ground. Over 40 people were involved in the exercise making one of our largest in recent years. Rapid Relief Team (UK) provided hot drinks, hot food and shelter which were greatly appreciated by our search teams returning cold and wet from the hill. A spokesperson for the team said ‘This exercise allowed us to test every…

Rob Illman is one of the Ashburton team’s longest-serving members and has helped hundreds of injured, missing or sick people in the last 41 years. He has participated in more than 1200 call-outs either receiving the call as Search Manager or as a team member. Rob joined the team in 1982 - he had a couple of friends in the team & he was walking regularly on Dartmoor doing letterboxing, so he went along one day & joined up. In his time on the team, he was Team Leader (Search Manager) for 17 years. He took a step back 11 years ago to be a Support Team Member and took on the role of driver. That has developed into being a qualified blue light driver; 4 years ago he became an MREW 4x4 Instructor, alongside colleagues, teaching members from across the region off-road skills. Over those 41 years, he has…

Last night after a joint search exercise with DSRT Tavistock, the first of our 4 trainees who started in 2021 was welcomed as a full team member and received his red MREW jacket. Tim had been working through his training logbook for 18 months, and completed a challenging 'all night' assessment last month. We hope that the other 3 trainees will soon follow suit, and the team can focus on the development of the 4 trainees from 2022 intake.

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STATEMENT FROM THE DARTMOOR RESCUE GROUP This weekend we were concerned to read posts on social media about an injured person on the moor who, on calling 999 was told that Dartmoor Rescue was not available. These posts were the first we had heard of the event. An investigation is now underway as to why a callout was not requested and why the injured person was told the teams were unavailable. This was indeed a busy weekend for the Dartmoor Rescue Group but we would still strive to help all those that require it. There are 7 mountain rescue teams in the south west including the 4 teams of the DRG. All of these teams can be deployed into neighbouring areas in the event that a team is unable to respond. We are grateful to the members of the public who assisted the injured person and wish her a speedy…