Galloway Mountain Rescue Team in desperate need of a new base
The team have been based in Newton Stewart for the past 10 years.
Last updated 29th Mar 2024
To enhance their training skills, store more equipment and vehicles, the Galloway Mountain Rescue Team are looking to relocate from their current Newton Stewart base which is no longer fit for purpose.
Our reporter Ruth Ridley joined one of their monthly full-day training sessions near Dalry where she saw first-hand how important it is for them practicing responding to callouts.
The day began with briefing on the incident which involved an alert sent from an emergency beacon activatd by an injured forestry worker.
Information shared included details of the injured party, location, and last known sight.
The team worked amongst themselves to search, assist medical treatment and safely bring the injured person to the ambulance.
Ant who is one of the experienced members of the team explains what kind of things the training involved:
“Today we had a practice of a primary survey which is the first response when you see the casualty when you first go over to them. We then went out to a casualty who was working out in the forest and fractured his leg. We had a callout to go out, find them, treat them, and bring them back.”
He believes this kind of scenario training is vital:
“This is important because today we’re working with a forestry group who work in this forest. It’s important to understand what they do and for them to know what we do because if anyone out here is to have an accident out here, these guys might be stuck out here all day. They know the area, they’re more familiar with it than we are so we can work off each other.”
After speaking with several members of the rescue team, they said that a new base will have training room, better storage, and incident management facilities which could save precious time on a callout.
This further emphasises their need to seek somewhere new.
Stewart Gibson has been team leader for four years and says he hopes to stay within a similar area of their headquarters:
“Any central area near to Newton Stewart is good. We need quick access to the A75 so in an emergency callout, we can get their quickly.
“The base was built 40 odd years ago now – it was the old ambulance station in Newton Stewart – but we’ve now grown out of it. We were really lucky to have it donated to the team which we’ve been at for just over 10 years, but we’ve outgrown it now.”
With six newly qualified members, the team is expanding which puts on more pressure to find a new building.
“We’ve now got six new team members who have worked really hard over the last year to be on the callout list. This helps boost our numbers and it means that hopefully we can have an effect response to any callouts that we get.” Says Stewart.
Dave MacPheat - one of the six new fully-trained members – says the work they do is crucial as they provide a unique service:
“It’s potentially life threatening. We’re going out to someone who is potentially having the worst day of their life on terrain nobody else emergency services can get to but us and that’s what we’re there for.”
A new base will allow more room for vehicles, equipment storage, training room, control centre and a drying room for all their wet kit.
To kickstart their new journey, they’re organising projects to help raise funds.