SEMRA will hold two flag days in Clonmel on the last weekend of this month, the 31st of October and the 1st of November. Many team members come from the Clonmel/South Tipperary area and SEMRA is hoping to raise much needed funds for the upkeep of the two vehicles and rescue equipment located in Clonmel. Chairman of the team, Michael Power said "the vehicles in Clonmel play a vital, life-saving role in the team's operations. For the last number of years, we have had two vehicles, a 4x4 and a control vehicle, stationed in the Civil Defence yard which allows the team a very quick response time to any incident in the Clonmel area and beyond". He thanked Civil Defence for providing the parking spaces. He went on to say "as we don't have a permanent base, I would also like to thank the Chief Fire Officer in Clonmel for allowing the team to use the Fire Training Centre for meetings and training courses. On behalf of the SEMRA team, and especially the members from the Clonmel area, I would like to thank the Clonmel people, many of them hill walkers with the local Peaks Mountaineering Club, for their ongoing support". As a voluntary organisation, SEMRA relies on donations from the public and hill walking clubs. An annual grant from the Government covers around a quarter of SEMRA's yearly running costs.
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Two incidents, in the mountains of the South East of Ireland, made it a busy evening and night for SEMRA. At 1500 hrs on Friday, September 26th, 2008, the team was called out by Ambulance Control in Wexford, to an incident on the Comeragh mountains in Co Waterford. A lone walker, from Tipperary, had fallen and sustained a lower leg injury. The team, along with two Emergency Medical Technicians from the Ambulance Service in Clonmel, managed to evacuate the man to a waiting ambulance that had driven up through the woods to Lough Mohra, where the man had fallen during a walk. He was taken to Clonmel hospital and later transferred to Waterford Regional Hospital for treatment.
In the second incident later that night, at 2000hrs, An Garda Siochana based in Dungarvan called the team to an incident on the Knockmealdown Mountains, on the border of Tipperary and Waterford. A 62 year-old Limerick man had gone walking in the mountains and had failed to return to a pick-up point arranged with his wife. SEMRA went on full team callout and set up base just above the area known as "The Vee", from where the man had started his walk. The team called in the Coast Guard helicopter from Waterford to help in the search, it also called a search dog team from the search and rescue dog association, SARDA. Gardai from the local area were also on scene. Twenty-five members of the team were starting to search the mountains, when word came through that the man had made his way down the other side of the mountain to a house in the Goat's Bridge area and was safe and well. A team vehicle was sent to pick him up, and he was reunited with his family later that night. The man had become lost when dense fog covered the mountains yesterday evening. SEMRA would like to thank everyone that helped in yesterday's incidents, An Garda Siochana, The Coast Guard, SARDA, Ambulance Service and all its own voluntary members.
At around 15hrs today, SEMRA was alerted to an incident in the Comeragh Mountains in County Waterford by Ambulance Control in Wexford. A lone walker, in the vicinity of Lake Mohra, had slipped and injured his lower leg. A team 4x4 vehicle and personnel were mobilised to assist at the incident, evacuating the man to a waiting ambulance.
A camera crew from the popular RTE programme Nationwide accompanied SEMRA on a training day in the Galtees yesterday. A search and rescue exercise took place in which personnel and equipment were airlifted to the top of the Black Road by the Coast Guard Sikorsky S-61 Search & Rescue helicopter. Two team 4x4 vehicles also attended the incident site where an exercise casualty was located, assessed, treated and evacuated.
Last Friday, 29th August 2008 as team members were heading for home after our Dungarvan flag day, the team was put on standby for a search for a tourist missing at Mahon Falls in the Comeragh Mountains. The team vehicle that is stationed in Dungarvan was on its way to the incident when the man turned up safe and well, after he had become lost in fog and mist above the Falls.