Episode 3 Countryside 999


Episode 3

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From the Highlands of Scotland to the coast of Cornwall,

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the Great British countryside is spectacular.

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But we work and play in it at our peril.

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And when things go wrong,

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the emergency services race to the rescue...

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This chap is having a heart attack and we need to get him in quickly.

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There's no police courses for this!

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..going hundreds of miles against the clock,

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battling the elements and braving the weather.

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From fields and forests to cliffs and country roads,

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we'll be right at the heart of the action...

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-..with police fighting crime.

-I could seize your dog,

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I could seize your van. But I'm going to summons you all to court.

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Paramedics saving lives...

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..and wardens safeguarding our lakes.

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Come out of the way!

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We're there as the emergency services pull together

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to pick up, patch up, and protect the public.

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This is Countryside 999.

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Coming up, the Durham police pull an all-nighter

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when they go hunting for poachers.

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I'm going to seize that lamp, with that battery.

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Could seize your dog, could seize your van, but I'm not.

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But I'm going to summons you all to court.

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A seriously burned camper desperately in need

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of attention proves difficult to find.

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And another shocking fire at Windermere has tragic consequences.

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There's a heck of a lot of fire and black smoke.

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Cornwall is Britain's most popular holiday destination

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and a greatest hits of the British coastline.

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It's a surfer's paradise with family friendly beaches...

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..lovers' coves and high, challenging cliffs.

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But head inland and 80% of Cornwall's landscape

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is rolling farmland, dotted with remote farms,

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linked by the odd B-road.

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Getting around Cornwall fast isn't easy, unless you've got a chopper.

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The Cornwall Air Ambulance has flown over 24,000 missions

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and saved countless lives

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by dramatically cutting down travel time across the county.

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Mick McLaughlin has been part of the team for eight years.

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Before that he was an air paramedic in London.

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'They're very similar roles.

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'The difference here is mostly down to the geography.'

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It is a big county so we're having to travel further to get to

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patients and then having to travel further to get those patients

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to definitive care.

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It's a male I take it, H? OK. Right, we're on our way.

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An emergency call has come in.

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Right. We've got a job just the other side of Falmouth

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and it's someone whose gas cylinders have exploded.

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Apparently he's got burns to his face.

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The crew is not there yet so we don't really know the severity at all.

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From Newquay, the crew will fly 25 miles south to the

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Helford River estuary, where the patient is in a remote field.

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For calls like this, speed is of the essence.

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When we get a call like this, you know,

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with reports of someone having a gas canister explode

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right in the vicinity of their face, it does raise alarm bells for us.

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They'll be there in 15 minutes, way before the land ambulance.

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With burns it's essential to have the right kit.

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Lead paramedic Steve Garvey has come prepared.

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According to the grid reference, they've arrived.

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We were expecting to sort of see an industrial accident on a farm.

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When we got overhead the grid reference,

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we actually found what appeared to be a campsite.

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A field cleared of livestock isn't the usual description of a campsite.

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And in the confusion, they are losing precious time.

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All those minutes that it takes finding a patient can be

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the difference between, you know, recovering well or having long-term

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injuries and can potentially mean the difference between life and death.

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'As we were orbiting, we identified the scorch marks on the ground.'

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They land just metres away from the patient.

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-Hello there.

-Hiya.

-Hello there, sir.

-Hello.

-What's your name, sir?

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-Alan.

-Hello, Alan. I'm Mick.

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71-year-old Alan's friend Janine is a former nurse.

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How long have you been cooling it down for?

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We've probably been pouring water as long as he could manage,

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-which is about 10 minutes.

-OK, ideal. Thank you.

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Janine poured litres of cold water over the burns, limiting their pain.

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And how are you feeling now, Alan? Pain wise? Obviously uncomfortable.

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Mick needs to find out what caused the burns.

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-What was it? Just a sort of Calor gas cylinder or something?

-Yeah.

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And the whole thing exploded or just flared up?

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The flaring camping gas cylinder has acted like a blowtorch.

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The much heat to Alan's face could have a serious

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effect on his breathing.

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Obviously, the things we worry about - your airway.

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'Any burns to the face, you know, we risk an airway injury.

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'It's a very delicate tissue inside the mouth and the nose'

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and you can get a huge amount of swelling very quickly.

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He has got a bit of a burn here but not inside his mouth.

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Yes, no. Looking a nice, normal colour.

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-Alan's airway is clear.

-You're looking nice and clean.

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If I asked you to give the pain a score out of ten,

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ten being the worst you could imagine, zero being nothing,

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what's the score it as at the moment?

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So quite significant. OK.

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We'll get the pain sorted out for you in a moment.

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Although Alan won't appreciate it,

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the fact that he is scoring his pain high is good news.

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'The more severe burns often aren't painful'

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because they'll destroy the nerve endings as well.

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But it's those superficial and partial thickness burns

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that can be extremely painful.

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We're just going to wrap your burns in a bit of clingfilm.

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That will stop the air getting to them.

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The clingfilm will act as a temporary skin,

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covering Alan's exposed nerve endings.

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But Alan is going into shock. He's starting to hyperventilate.

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It is a heart-wrenching ordeal for Alan's family.

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The paramedics must ease his pain before they can move him.

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What we've got here is some gas and air.

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Take some nice, deep breaths for me. That's it. Just like that.

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You can just breathe out normally and just keep sucking it in.

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But gas and air isn't enough.

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While Alan's in this much pain, he's going nowhere.

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County Durham in the north of England.

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A beautiful part of the world,

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once famous for its mining and heavy industry.

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Now the landscape and way of life is mostly rural.

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Nearly 1,000 square miles of agricultural land,

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woods and shady valleys are criss-crossed with winding lanes.

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Beautiful by day but at night,

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it provides the perfect cover for crime.

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The Durham Constabulary police every nook and cranny

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of their patch, 24/7.

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Officer Kevin Hall has been with the Derwentside team for ten years.

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I think, for me, joining the police,

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there was an element of serving the communities,

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being able to go out there and make a difference to people's lives,

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being able to find out what their problems are and resolving them

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for them as best as I can.

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At their headquarters in Consett,

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the team are preparing for a night patrol.

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Marked patrols and unmarked patrols predominantly in the Lanchester area.

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That's due to an increase of rural crime.

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Rural crime costs the British economy over £40 million a year.

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And it's rising.

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Burglaries, straightforward thefts and also poaching and hunting

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offences within Lanchester and a little bit further afield.

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On Kevin's beat, poaching is a real problem.

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The aim of our operation was just to go out and catch some poachers.

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Simple as that.

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But poachers are notoriously difficult to catch.

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Tonight the team are travelling from Consett to patrol

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the Lanchester area.

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Poachers hunt for all sorts of game, including deer and rabbit,

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for pleasure and for money.

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They hunt with dogs and guns on other people's land

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and in County Durham, there's a lot of land to police.

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It's 10 o'clock and a call comes in.

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Did she give any sort of direction of where they were going?

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Just into the fields?

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Just got a call from a lady who has been out walking her dogs

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who stated she's seen some males walking with some lurchers,

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possibly a deer in the area and heard a popping noise,

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which may have been an air weapon going off or a rifle.

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So we're just going to go down now

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and have a look around in the area to see if we can trace these lads

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with the dogs and see if we can catch them up to no good, really.

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It's an ancient crime, but these days, poachers use modern tactics.

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Gangs communicate with each other to stay one step ahead of the police.

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Just seen some faint lights.

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They weren't car lights because they weren't bright enough

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so we're just going to try and head across to where the lights came from.

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They use powerful lamps to spot and stun animals

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but it's the air guns and rifles Kevin's concerned about.

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Because it's dark and there is a firearm potentially involved,

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chances are you might get shot,

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although it might be by accident and they might be doing it on purpose

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to try and scare us away so probably look from the outside initially.

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Poachers, above all, like to stay hidden.

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-Is there any cattle in here?

-No, there's no cattle.

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You should be able to open the cake and get through the kissing gate.

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This is known locally as Plantation but we're only - what? -

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50 metres away from the houses.

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So if the lads know that there's a deer in the area,

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if they've seen it during the day, they'll come out once it's dark

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with the dogs and try and track it down

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and try and get the dogs to chase it and attack it and bring it down.

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But it is that dark, you can't even see what's about.

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There's no torchlight about so I think they're probably well gone.

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Unfortunately this time we've missed them.

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It's Poachers 1, Coppers 0.

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To be honest, we don't catch as many as we would like.

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But the night is still young.

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On the Helford River estuary in Cornwall,

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air ambulance paramedics are treating 71-year-old Alan

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after a camping accident.

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A gas cylinder has flared up,

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causing severe burns to his face, arms and legs.

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Take some nice, deep breaths for me.

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Air paramedic Mick McLaughlin was first on the scene.

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It became clear quickly with this gentleman that actually this

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is a matter of pain management rather than life-threatening injuries.

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They are the painful burns but they leave the least damage.

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So it's uncomfortable because it exposes nerve endings.

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-So we just wanted control your pain this way.

-OK. Yes.

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Gas and air isn't strong enough...

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..so Mick resource to morphine to ease Alan's pain.

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So, if I just take your arm...

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What we'll do, we will give it a few minutes

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because it takes a few minutes to get working,

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and then we can top you up.

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-The morphine takes effect. So they start to move Alan.

-Right.

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We'll get you on a stretcher, Alan.

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We are just going to roll you slightly towards me.

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-OK. Roll us up.

-There we go.

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We're going to gently lower you back and you'll be slightly offset

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so we're then going to have to slide you over to the middle.

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-That's it. That's it, lovely.

-Yeah.

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Right. How is the pain at the moment?

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-Do you need any more?

-Not so bad. Not so bad.

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-I'm going to keep asking that same question.

-Keep on.

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-Seven to eight.

-OK. We'll give you a little bit more.

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Alan, are you feeling cold or is this shivering, do you think,

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-as a result, of sheer terror?

-I think it's...

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-No, I don't feel cold actually. I don't feel cold.

-OK.

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We'll get you into the warm in a moment.

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We're going round to the far side of the helicopter,

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there's a plinth sticking out the side,

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and we're just going to lift him feet first.

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OK. Ready, set, lift.

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-There we go.

-Thank you, everybody.

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So what am I in right now? What is it?

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-It's a EC 135 helicopter.

-OK.

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OK, here we go.

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-Cornwall Air Ambulance, we are.

-Yeah.

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Here we go.

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We're going to try some IV paracetamol in a minute as well,

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more effective than normal paracetamol.

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Hopefully the two combined will start to kick in your pain.

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We're going to get your blood pressure

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and stuff before we lift and that will help us

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make a decision where we going to land at the hospital.

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'With the treatment of burns, there are a few options -

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'whether to go to the nearest hospital,'

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whether to go to a regional burns unit.

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With the specialist burns unit a 40 minute flight away

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and Alan in so much pain, Mick opts for the much shorter hop

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to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.

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Paul, we're just about to lift from scene en route

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to Truro for direct lending. We haven't got a signal down here,

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so if you could pass on the details when you're ready, over.

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Go ahead, over.

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It is quite a scary concept, you know, you can be happily

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camping one minute and then the next minute,

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effectively a small bomb goes off in your face.

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-We're just at the hospital now, Alan, OK?

-Yes.

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We're going to be on the ground within one minute.

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Barriers are down.

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We've just taken about seven or eight minutes to get to hospital,

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Alan, and that was probably about a 50 minute journey by road.

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Yes, I appreciate that.

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We've managed to shave off 40 minutes of travelling time there.

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-Thanks for coming.

-Not a problem.

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It's a pleasure, it's what we're here for.

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Alan's quickly wheeled into the resuscitation unit.

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He's in the right place for now...

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..but he's not out of the woods yet.

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Windermere in Cumbria has long been the beating heart

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of the Lake District...

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..forever linked to poets and painters stunned by the landscape.

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Over 2,500 boats are moored on Windermere, sharing the lake

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with water sports enthusiasts...

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and the busiest pleasure cruisers

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in England, ferrying around a million and a half visitors a year.

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It's England's biggest, most beautiful lake...

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..but all the activity breeds danger.

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No-one knows this better than the district council's lake wardens.

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Often first on scene,

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they're a vital link to police,

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fire and ambulance services 365 days a year.

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Steve Phelps has been protecting people on

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and around the lake for the past two decades.

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I must admit when I first joined the job it was a case of,

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"Well, it would be great to swan about in summer o a boat and mooch

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"up and down Windermere if there's not a lot to do."

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How wrong can you be, really?

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The job is so diverse,

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you never know what you're going to face from one day to another.

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Just a few minutes into his shift, Steve gets a call.

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I've just a message from the foot passenger ferry

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at Fell Foot down at the south end of the lake.

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There's a 30-foot yacht which was on the jetty that the ferry uses,

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was asked to move, has reversed out from the jetty

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and has now got stuck in the shallows.

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So we've got a 30-foot yacht blocking all the jetties at Fell Foot,

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people on board the yacht, so I'm just going to nip down now

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and find out what the situation is.

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A yacht blocking the jetties won't just play havoc with

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the ferry service, it'll send other traffic off-course

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and into dangerously busy water.

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Normally Fell Foot's quite busy at this time of the year

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so there could be quite a lot of people around down there,

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especially in the water, and we usually get a lot of children

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and things swimming around about that area.

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Steve's boat is capable of up to 40 knots -

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fast enough to get him

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the four miles to Fell Foot in under six minutes.

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You get a great buzz when you get out there -

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big, powerful boat travelling at speed down the lake

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responding to an incident, brain cells are ticking over trying

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to decide what you're going to do when you get there.

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It's putting all that training that you've had into...into practice.

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Over the last five years,

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the wardens have dealt with over 1,100 incidents.

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14 of those were fatalities.

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The problem here seems to have fixed itself.

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OK. As long as you're free and everybody is all right, no injuries.

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Nearly at the end of the season!

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Right, we've...

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We've rescued this lady before.

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She's obviously managed to get it free herself this time.

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End of the day, nobody's injured,

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boat's safe and you've got your jetty back.

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On an average year,

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we have approximately 300 incidents reported on our database.

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That can be anything from noticing that a boat

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is in danger of coming off its mooring

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because the equipment is faulty right the way through to

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full-blown rescues including boat fires

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and people having heart attacks or major medical emergencies on boats.

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It's just a few hours before another call comes in.

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Just had a call that there's been a loud explosion

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and a pillar of black smoke in the north end of the lake

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so we're just going to go out there now and find out what's happening.

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The original call for the incident was that there had been

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a loud explosion and we had no location for this incident.

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We didn't know whether it was on the water on the shoreline.

0:24:460:24:49

The information came from a boat on the other side of the lake,

0:24:490:24:52

so we don't know exactly what's happening

0:24:520:24:54

but I'm going to go and find out now.

0:24:540:24:56

Just going to alert these people that we're on our way through.

0:24:570:25:01

SIREN BLARES

0:25:010:25:03

From over a mile away, Steve sees just how serious this incident is.

0:25:050:25:10

Right in front of us at the moment there's a large plume of dark smoke.

0:25:100:25:13

INDISTINCT VOICE ON RADIO

0:25:210:25:23

Yeah, it's the house just north of Brockhole.

0:25:230:25:27

From what I'm being told by somebody,

0:25:270:25:29

it was caused by a firework display

0:25:290:25:31

but there's a heck of a lot of fire,

0:25:310:25:35

as in flames and black smoke.

0:25:350:25:38

At the moment, there are still fireworks going off.

0:25:380:25:40

I'm not sure whether that's because of the fire

0:25:400:25:43

or whether that's actually part of the plan.

0:25:430:25:46

I'm just going to see if I can land and go and establish what's going on.

0:25:460:25:50

It's a very strange time of day to have a firework display,

0:25:500:25:54

but there again, you never know.

0:25:540:25:56

Just going to see what's happening, but I'm going to...

0:25:560:25:59

I'm going to get off the boat and go and have a look.

0:25:590:26:02

It's clearly not just a fireworks display - this fire is severe.

0:26:020:26:07

-RADIO:

-If you do need the fire brigade, just give us a yell.

0:26:070:26:10

Yeah, roger, it's the...

0:26:130:26:14

It's behind the big house that they are building.

0:26:140:26:18

The reason we went as close to the fire as we did was to see

0:26:180:26:20

if there was anybody up there who needed assistance.

0:26:200:26:22

FIREWORKS BANG

0:26:220:26:25

I don't know if you can hear that,

0:26:250:26:26

but that's the fireworks going off again.

0:26:260:26:29

It's a very worrying sight.

0:26:290:26:30

There's a large marquee which I can just see.

0:26:320:26:35

It looks like maybe Fire Brigade are here at the moment.

0:26:370:26:40

Go ahead, Steve.

0:26:440:26:46

Yeah, for info, it is a fire

0:26:460:26:48

and Fire Brigade are already on scene, over.

0:26:480:26:51

Because the professionals are here, there's nothing we can do.

0:26:510:26:55

We're just going to go make our way back to the boat

0:26:550:26:58

then leave the professionals to it. We'll stay out of the way.

0:26:580:27:01

This could well be a wedding party gone wrong.

0:27:030:27:07

It seems like the fire service are now getting it under control.

0:27:070:27:11

Five firefighting crews fought the blaze for over four hours, one of

0:27:130:27:17

the worst ever seen on the shores of Windermere, and it ended in tragedy.

0:27:170:27:22

-NEWSREADER:

-The police and fire service were called to the fire

0:27:230:27:26

in the grounds of a large house in Ecclerigg

0:27:260:27:28

just after 3:30 yesterday afternoon.

0:27:280:27:31

Two bodies, thought to be those of a man and a woman, were found.

0:27:310:27:34

In a shed containing fireworks. Emergency services were called.

0:27:340:27:38

The flames were ferocious and according to those who

0:27:380:27:41

witnessed the scene, the explosions were deafening.

0:27:410:27:44

And when the flames were extinguished,

0:27:440:27:46

this was the scene of devastation -

0:27:460:27:49

the shed that had been used to store fireworks reduced to ash.

0:27:490:27:52

The next day,

0:27:590:28:00

Steve is patrolling the approach to the scene of the blaze.

0:28:000:28:03

Since we attended here yesterday,

0:28:080:28:10

we've had it confirmed that unfortunately

0:28:100:28:13

two people lost their lives in the explosion

0:28:130:28:16

and the subsequent fire yesterday.

0:28:160:28:19

It's one male and one female.

0:28:190:28:22

It's a tragedy.

0:28:220:28:23

Yesterday, somebody came to work and hadn't gone home yesterday evening.

0:28:230:28:28

Obviously something like that happens and you spend a little

0:28:300:28:33

bit of time thinking about things and in reflection,

0:28:330:28:37

it's nothing that we could have done to avoid that situation.

0:28:370:28:41

There was nothing that we could do to help the situation when we got there.

0:28:410:28:45

The unfortunate thing is that somebody's sadly lost their life.

0:28:450:28:49

We're all human and it does make you realise that we're all

0:28:500:28:53

vulnerable to things that can happen that are beyond our control.

0:28:530:28:56

In County Durham, PC Kevin Hall and team are out late hunting poachers.

0:29:090:29:15

It's that dark you can't even see what's...what's about.

0:29:150:29:18

There's no torch light around so I think they've probably well gone.

0:29:180:29:22

So far, the poachers are winning.

0:29:220:29:25

We're trying to get the poachers stopped where we can,

0:29:250:29:30

operations like this when we come out and about.

0:29:300:29:33

But they're on the tail of three suspicious men with dogs.

0:29:330:29:38

What we could find is just a car parked up in one of the lay-bys

0:29:380:29:41

and then people are off in the field doing...

0:29:410:29:46

committing poaching offences and they've tucked their car

0:29:460:29:49

into some lay-by hoping it's not going to be spotted.

0:29:490:29:53

Though it's not only poachers who skulk around at night.

0:29:530:29:56

Especially in the picnic area car park,

0:29:580:30:01

you quite often come across courting couples of some description or other.

0:30:010:30:06

So yeah, that can be a bit of an embarrassing moment,

0:30:090:30:12

but I'm sure they're more embarrassed than we are.

0:30:120:30:15

But it's someone else's night that's about to be spoiled.

0:30:150:30:18

One of the other patrol cars has called in.

0:30:180:30:21

One of the officers just shouted up saying that he's stopped

0:30:210:30:25

a blue transit van with some males in and dogs.

0:30:250:30:28

It's ten to one in the morning.

0:30:300:30:32

PC Russ Booth is questioning the suspects.

0:30:320:30:35

I saw an unmarked vehicle with three young lads sat in the front.

0:30:370:30:41

Immediately, that arouses my suspicion -

0:30:410:30:44

what are they doing in the area at this time of night?

0:30:440:30:48

They have three lurcher dogs in the van.

0:30:480:30:51

Originally bred for hunting, they're a popular choice for poachers.

0:30:510:30:55

-They all right, the dogs?

-Mind stepping out the light?

0:30:550:31:00

Just watch it, like.

0:31:000:31:02

So you just drive a bit with your dogs and the van? Looking for what?

0:31:020:31:05

Somewhere to walk.

0:31:050:31:08

-Somewhere to walk?

-Actually, we haven't been anywhere proper,

0:31:080:31:11

like, we've just been driving around.

0:31:110:31:13

Most poachers are prosecuted for trespassing in the pursuit

0:31:130:31:17

of game, so these lads are keen to point out that they haven't been

0:31:170:31:20

on anyone's land.

0:31:200:31:22

I believe you've probably been on land

0:31:230:31:25

or that you were going to be going on land,

0:31:250:31:27

and let the dogs off to catch whatever they come across, right?

0:31:270:31:31

We'll be submitting some intelligence to that effect,

0:31:330:31:36

that that's what you were doing.

0:31:360:31:39

Kevin is looking for evidence of poaching.

0:31:390:31:42

You got any lamps or owt on you?

0:31:420:31:44

No?

0:31:450:31:46

-You got owt in your pocket?

-No.

0:31:480:31:51

Keys, phone.

0:31:510:31:53

What's in the front of the vehicle, owt?

0:31:530:31:55

Up front, Kevin discovers two suspicious handheld lights.

0:31:550:31:59

These are for poaching, for lamping...

0:31:590:32:04

Lamping anything from foxes, deers, rabbit, hares...

0:32:040:32:07

Which are obviously high-powered, so they can either shine them

0:32:080:32:12

from the fan or they'll just walk through the fields and shine them

0:32:120:32:16

at any animals that come around and then they'll...

0:32:160:32:20

Once they've been gazed, the animals in the light of the torch,

0:32:200:32:25

then they'll set the dogs on them and the dogs

0:32:250:32:28

will chase it and hunt it down.

0:32:280:32:30

Looks like the evidence is piling up.

0:32:300:32:33

-So you've been out poaching then?

-No, just been for a walk.

0:32:330:32:36

Next, they find a dead rabbit in the back of the van.

0:32:360:32:39

So you cannot, you cannot say where that rabbit came from?

0:32:400:32:44

-Yeah, just the park up there.

-So how did you catch it?

0:32:440:32:47

-Dog.

-Right.

0:32:470:32:49

-I wasn't going to catch it, but he ran down with it, like.

-Right.

0:32:490:32:53

This lad has just admitted to catching a rabbit with his dog.

0:32:530:32:57

Unfortunately for him, that's been against the law since 1828.

0:32:570:33:01

So that's committing an offence.

0:33:030:33:05

Yeah? Committing poaching offences, allowing your dogs to chase a rabbit.

0:33:050:33:09

-In a public park? Is that classed as poaching?

-Yeah.

0:33:090:33:12

You're not allowed... Your dog... It's an offence to hunt with dogs.

0:33:120:33:16

You haven't got permission from the landowner,

0:33:160:33:19

whether that's a public park and it's Durham County Council

0:33:190:33:21

or it's private, so you are committing offences there.

0:33:210:33:25

Even you're not caught red-handed, if there's evidence that you've been

0:33:270:33:31

on public or private land with dogs and guns or lamps,

0:33:310:33:35

you can be nicked.

0:33:350:33:37

What I'll do is, I'm going to seize that lamp

0:33:370:33:39

with that battery.

0:33:390:33:41

I could seize your dogs, I could seize your van, but I'm not,

0:33:410:33:44

but I'm going to summon you all to court,

0:33:440:33:46

so you'll get summons for poaching offences.

0:33:460:33:49

It's not actually an offence under the Hunting Act...

0:33:490:33:51

-But I haven't been caught in the field.

-Doesn't matter.

0:33:510:33:54

I don't need... Doesn't matter.

0:33:540:33:56

You've got your dogs, you've got your lumps and you've got a rabbit.

0:33:560:33:59

Can I ask a question?

0:33:590:34:01

-Is there anyway to get the lamps and packs back?

-Once it's been to court.

0:34:010:34:05

'Whenever you stop anybody, you're always seeing that person

0:34:050:34:08

'as someone you don't know and you don't know what they're capable of,

0:34:080:34:11

'and if it comes to the stage where you have got to lay hands on

0:34:110:34:14

'and you've got to arrest that person,

0:34:140:34:16

'generally for me, I like to think that I can use my voice,'

0:34:160:34:18

talk to the people, keep the situation calm

0:34:180:34:22

and deal with them in a safe manner.

0:34:220:34:26

I'm going to take the battery, right?

0:34:260:34:28

This cost me a fortune, I worked hard for this...

0:34:280:34:31

I'm going to take your battery, I'm seizing your battery, right?

0:34:310:34:33

Honest to God, I paid loads of money for this, do you know what I mean?

0:34:330:34:37

Take your hand...

0:34:370:34:38

It's either that or you're going to end up getting locked up.

0:34:380:34:41

I'd rather be locked up, I'm telling you now.

0:34:410:34:44

Right, well, I'm taking it, right?

0:34:440:34:46

-Move your hand.

-Just keep calm, mate.

0:34:460:34:49

I spent loads of money, I worked hard for that,

0:34:490:34:51

do you know what I mean?

0:34:510:34:52

Other people don't work nowadays, do you know what I mean?

0:34:520:34:55

'Some incidents, it becomes'

0:34:550:34:56

a bit of a scuffle,

0:34:560:34:58

and that's a situation we're always trying to avoid

0:34:580:35:01

because I am going to get hurt and they're going to get hurt.

0:35:010:35:03

If you're going out and committing offences, you know the consequences.

0:35:030:35:06

If you get stopped, you're going to end up getting done.

0:35:060:35:09

-You can't take that out on us.

-Why not? I'm asking you a question.

0:35:090:35:12

So if that was you...

0:35:120:35:13

If your hobby is a criminal offence,

0:35:130:35:16

how can you get upset by it if you get caught?

0:35:160:35:19

But this lad's still not happy. He wants to call his dad.

0:35:190:35:23

He's not going to give us it back though,

0:35:230:35:25

that's what he's saying, do you know what I mean?

0:35:250:35:28

'It got to the point when he phoned his dad to basically say,'

0:35:280:35:31

"Dad, the police have taken me lamps,"

0:35:310:35:33

and his dad's tried to convince me to give them back.

0:35:330:35:36

We could actually seize the van and the dogs,

0:35:360:35:40

and they could all get locked up for the night.

0:35:400:35:44

As it goes at the minute, we've seized the lamps.

0:35:440:35:46

There's two lamps here and two battery packs and that's...

0:35:460:35:49

and the three dogs and one dead rabbit.

0:35:490:35:51

As well as the dead rabbit,

0:35:540:35:57

the time of night they were out allegedly walking the lurchers

0:35:570:36:01

and the lamps, the boys' clothes are also a bit of a giveaway.

0:36:010:36:07

They're all wearing camouflage clothing.

0:36:070:36:09

I mean, from the hats, jackets and trousers and even boots,

0:36:090:36:13

they had every aspect of a poacher as you would write it.

0:36:130:36:16

Unfortunately for them, they were stopped on the night.

0:36:160:36:19

How long's this going to take, like, to process it?

0:36:190:36:22

-It's going to be at least a month.

-At least a month?

0:36:220:36:26

'The young lad didn't like it one little bit

0:36:260:36:28

'that we took his equipment off him.'

0:36:280:36:30

That's a perfect example of how actually taking equipment

0:36:300:36:33

off people, whether that would be a lamp, a dog, a car,

0:36:330:36:37

is more upsetting to them than actually being caught

0:36:370:36:40

for the offence that they've been caught committing.

0:36:400:36:43

It was a game of two halves, but the coppers took the night.

0:36:430:36:46

I might get them a can of Coke when we get back to the nick.

0:36:470:36:50

It has to be diet, though, because Russ is on a diet.

0:36:500:36:53

It is a bit of a humorous story when you think about it, right?

0:36:550:36:57

"I'm going to catch a poacher tonight," and we actually

0:36:570:37:00

catch one and it's all boxed off at the end of it, it was a good result.

0:37:000:37:03

In Cornwall, a camping gas cylinder flared up causing severe,

0:37:180:37:22

painful burns to holidaymaker Alan's body and face.

0:37:220:37:25

The Air Ambulance took eight minutes to get him

0:37:260:37:29

to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.

0:37:290:37:31

He's had 10 milligrams of morphine and one gram of IV paracetamol.

0:37:370:37:41

Heart rate, 86.

0:37:410:37:42

BP's been fairly consistent - 165 over 96...

0:37:420:37:45

We'll do bloods, check the thickness of the burns.

0:37:520:37:54

That will be mapped onto a piece of paper and then we'll...

0:37:540:37:57

In consultation with Bristol as to whether he needs

0:37:570:38:00

to go further intervention in Bristol or whether

0:38:000:38:02

he can stay here and come back as an outpatient.

0:38:020:38:05

Seven weeks later, Alan's back home in Farnham.

0:38:370:38:41

He's recovered enough to reflect on what happened that horrific day.

0:38:410:38:45

-I gather a gas cylinder exploded?

-Gas cylinder.

-OK.

0:38:480:38:53

I don't think I could feel any pain until I was lying there.

0:38:530:38:59

I think the adrenaline kicked in the moment that it flashed.

0:39:010:39:06

There are no burns where the clothes were.

0:39:060:39:08

My glasses clearly protect my eyes.

0:39:080:39:11

Cos I lost all the skin around the forehead,

0:39:110:39:14

all the way down the side here, all the way around here.

0:39:140:39:16

And I was being repeatedly asked where

0:39:200:39:23

I felt in terms of the pain threshold.

0:39:230:39:27

That's the thing that stands out in my mind.

0:39:270:39:29

Still about seven or eight out of ten or has it changed at all?

0:39:290:39:33

-At least seven to eight.

-OK.

0:39:330:39:36

And very quickly wheeled on the stretcher

0:39:360:39:42

into the A&E department.

0:39:420:39:44

They very rapidly concluded that I really needed to go

0:39:440:39:49

to the nearest burns unit at Plymouth hospital.

0:39:490:39:52

Once I was with the specialist team at Plymouth, their assessment

0:39:530:39:59

essentially was that I had 17 serious spot burns

0:39:590:40:05

spread across my arms, face and legs

0:40:050:40:10

and everywhere else, there was a surface burn.

0:40:100:40:16

Alan spent just two days at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth

0:40:190:40:23

before being let home and treated as an outpatient by his GP.

0:40:230:40:27

Thankfully, he didn't need any skin grafts and he's well on the mend.

0:40:290:40:33

Given this is all natural healing recovery, it's pretty impressive.

0:40:360:40:41

Alan's had a lot of time to figure out exactly what went wrong...

0:40:450:40:49

..and now he feels strong enough to explain.

0:40:500:40:52

Apparently that is the first time

0:40:540:40:56

that I've actually seen this equipment since the accident.

0:40:560:40:59

I'm shaking now, so I am nervous.

0:41:000:41:03

The sequence that I went through essentially was to...

0:41:040:41:08

..check that the...

0:41:090:41:12

cylinder was closed.

0:41:120:41:14

Can't move it, so it must be off.

0:41:140:41:16

I do have quite severe arthritis in my hands

0:41:180:41:21

and find it difficult to grip things.

0:41:210:41:23

Alan's an experienced camper.

0:41:250:41:28

He thought he'd closed the gas off

0:41:280:41:30

but due to his arthritis, he hadn't turned the screw valve fully shut.

0:41:300:41:35

It had stuck.

0:41:350:41:36

With the fridge pilot light still burning,

0:41:360:41:39

he disconnected the gas pipe.

0:41:390:41:40

Suddenly there was this massive escape.

0:41:420:41:45

Flash - suddenly it all happened.

0:41:450:41:47

It's the speed of response, this is really what it's all about.

0:41:500:41:53

The role of the Air Ambulance - absolutely vital.

0:41:540:41:58

You know, the teams that work there, they're all dedicated - the air crews

0:41:580:42:02

themselves, the medics that go with them...

0:42:020:42:06

Obviously I can't speak too highly of them.

0:42:060:42:09

I do lie awake...

0:42:100:42:12

..occasionally and it comes to mind.

0:42:140:42:17

Still annoyed that I can make this mistake.

0:42:190:42:21

You feel annoyed with yourself when silly things happen.

0:42:210:42:25

That's life, isn't it?

0:42:250:42:26

It's been all go for the emergency services of rural Britain.

0:42:370:42:41

Windermere's lake wardens had a busy summer

0:42:430:42:46

keeping over a million tourists safe.

0:42:460:42:48

The three lads caught by Kevin Hall and his team

0:42:510:42:54

were given police cautions for the offence of night poaching.

0:42:540:42:57

Alan's burns have completely healed,

0:42:580:43:01

and next summer, he'll be going on holiday with his friends

0:43:010:43:03

and family, tents...

0:43:030:43:06

and a new health and safety checklist.

0:43:060:43:08

And you thought it was quiet in the countryside!

0:43:090:43:12

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