South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association Blog

At around 3pm on Saturday, March 27th, 2010, SEMRA was called out to deal with another incident on the Comeragh Mountains in Co Waterford. A member of a walking group had fallen and sustained a lower leg injury. The Mountain Rescue team issued a full team call out to all its members and within twenty minutes had a 4x4 vehicle and six members in the Nire Valley. The team also called the Marine Rescue Coordinating Centre in Dublin and requested the assistance of the Coast Guard helicopter from Waterford. The helicopter was tasked to go to the area known as the "Knockanaffrin Ridge" where it located the injured walker. After her injury was treated the casualty was winched aboard and flown to Waterford Regional Hospital. Mountain Rescue members accompanied the remainder of the walking group safely off the mountains.
This is the second incident in the Comeragh Mountains in the last three days and the fourth that Mountain Rescue and the Coast Guard have dealt with in the South East in the last ten days. Team Leader, Michael Power, said "for a voluntary organisation, the last few days have been very busy, but all the training we do with the crews of the Coast Guard S61 in Waterford means we can respond quickly and make the best use of all our combined resources available for the benefit of the people that were injured and lost".

SEMRA would like to thank every one for their help today, the Crew of the helicopter, the walking group, its own members, and especially all at Hanora's Cottage in the Nire valley for allowing the team access to phones, as mobile phone reception was very bad in the area.